Always in my Heart
by Perfect.Ace
Summary: All InuYasha ever wanted to do was protect his mother and live a seminormal life in Seattle. Why did he have to be the heir to the throne of Alazia? Prophecies, he decided, were very much overrated.
1. Cuts and Bruises

A/N: Be nice. Actually, be as mean as you want. This is my first fan-fic, and I'm rather hoping that it isn't too horrible. If it is, please tell me. (Because I would like for this story to be at least ok.) Well, I don't want to take up too much of your time, so go read my story.

Disclaimer: Ok, I know you all know that I don't own InuYasha. But I wish I did...

Chapter 1

Cuts and Bruises

_Where is he? _A beautiful woman in her late twenties looked worried, and a little mad as she stood on her front porch peering down the street. All she could think about was the whereabouts of her son. She knew he was a trouble maker, and that his friends probably got into trouble often too, but she also knew that he would need them soon.

She was dying. There was no other way to put it. But how was she to break it to her son? He was only fifteen, and she was his only relative that he knew of. The last thing she wanted to do was to send him off to his brother, but it was all she could think of. She heard the phone ringing behind her, so she reluctantly left her post, only because it might be her baby. He hated being called that, but that's what he was. He could be eighty, and still be her baby. But even in good health she wouldn't live that long.

She picked up the phone hoping hear the voice that she compared to the call of angels. "Hello?"

"Izumi, is that really you?"

"Yes it is, may I ask who I am speaking to?"

There was gentle laughter on the other line, "Don't you remember me, it's Krys."

It didn't even take a fraction of a second to remember who Krys was. Izumi and Krys had been friends since before Krys was born, well, that's what their parents had said. Izumi was two years older than Krys, and their parents had been friends, and from the day they met, they were inseparable. Their only communication since the day Izumi left Anchorage had been e-mail.

"Wow, Krys, you sound so…different. How long has it been, ten years?"

"More like fifteen, but yeah, it's been a while, how are you and the baby?"

Izumi laughed at this, "He's hardly a baby, and reminds me all the time, but we're ok. It's you I'm worried about, how are you?"

"I'm fine actually, I was just looking through old pictures, and saw that one of us and baby InuYasha on the day you left. I just needed to hear my best friend's voice."

"I've missed you so much, and I'm glad you called. I need to ask a huge favor of you, but you don't have to do it for me."

"Izumi, how many times do I have to remind you that you can ask me for anything, even the moon, and I'll find a way to get it for you? You don't need the moon, do you?" the last bit actually sounded like Krys was suspicious, though Izumi knew she was joking.

"Krys…I really need some help. I haven't told anyone this, not even InuYasha. I'm…Krys, I'm dying. I don't have long."

There was silence on the other line for a few seconds before Izumi could hear the sounds of her best friend crying. The next words were choked, and dry. "What can I do? I'll do anything"

"Krys, I need you to take InuYasha to his father."

"I can take care of him, no problem. I'll be there tomorrow, ok?" it was a barley audible whisper, but loud enough to make out clearly.

"Krys, thank you so much, you remember my dad's old apartment, right?"

"Yeah honey, I'll be there at three, ok?"

"That would be great. I'll keep an eye out for you."

"Ok, is there anything else you need?"

"No, that's it, I have to go now, but I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Alright, goodbye, and take care."

"Bye."

Just as Izumi hung up the phone, InuYasha walked through the door, looking down at the floor, his bangs covering up his face. As he closed the door behind him with his foot, he looked up to see his mother's worried face change to horror, and grief.

InuYasha was a handsome boy, tall, tan, and a frame that was all muscle. His long silver hair was dripping red, and his beautiful amber eyes looked so pained. His whole face was covered in cuts, and it looked as if he would have a black eye the next day. Izumi knew he would heal fast, but the cuts seemed to be deep. Her baby was about to pass out from the pain, so she knew it wasn't just his face.

"Oh my god, InuYasha, what happened?!"

"It's nothing mom, I'll be fine, I just need some rest…"

"Come here, get out of those bloody clothes, and sit on my bed, I'll be in in a sec."

"Really mom, it's nothing, stop worrying about me so much."

"InuYasha, sometimes I need to worry about you, now listen to me, and go."

He only did as he was told because of the pleading look in her eyes as she said the

last sentence. He was all she had, and he didn't want to disappoint her as much as he did, but somehow, he always seemed to disappoint her. He never said anything about it, but this time he would.

As he stripped into his boxers, he felt the fabric of his jeans trying to cling to his wounds, and it hurt to take them off. His shirt hurt worse when he took it off because there was a huge gash in the middle of his stomach, and he had been hoping that he wouldn't have to show his mom that one, but she would have taken it off of him had he left it on.

Izumi entered the room and almost cried. Her baby, the only person she had left in this world, would be dead if he were human. "You're lucky to be a hanyou, if you weren't, you'd be dead…" It was then that she broke down. She just couldn't take it. She crumpled to the floor, and was now sitting holding her knees with one hand, and the bed with the other. InuYasha looked confused and sad. He knew he disappointed her, but he was hoping that it hurt him more than it hurt her. He knelt down to comfort her, wincing as he did so. His stomach wounds were tearing, a few of the smaller ones becoming connected to the large one. Izumi looked up at the sound of her son wincing, and pushed on a patch at his shoulder that was either unharmed, or had healed already to get him to stand back up. She was supposed to take care of him, not the other way around. She stood and InuYasha thought about her. _She looks so fragile, is something wrong?_

"Sit down InuYasha, let me see those wounds of yours, and you tell me what happened, ok?" Sometimes Izumi worried about him getting himself killed, but she knew he could take care of himself.

"It was nothing mom, just a little fight, I've had worse." He was lying, and they both knew it, but he had already decided that telling her would just hurt her more.

Izumi took a washcloth in her right hand, and a bottle of peroxide in her left, and dampened the cloth, preparing to clean up her son. InuYasha winced at the scent of the peroxide, knowing that it would sting, and determined to act like it didn't hurt. He sat on the edge of the bed, and his mother started to wipe the peroxide on him, starting at one shoulder, and staying to the edge of the gash. She was surprised to hear her son speak as she began on the edges of the gash after adding more peroxide to the now pink washcloth.

"Mom, I know I disappoint you sometimes, but you have to believe me, I don't mean to, and I've been trying to be better. I'm sorry, can you ever forgive me?" These were the most sensitive words she had ever heard coming from her son. The last time she had heard someone asking if she could ever forgive them was Inutaisho when he left her. A single tear ran down her left cheek as she said, "InuYasha, there is only one way you could disappoint me. And that would be if you left the one you loved because you thought they didn't want you. If you ever do that…" She started crying again, a few of her tears falling on InuYasha's leg, stinging his cuts. He was now healing faster, and the gash on his stomach was now no larger than his arm. He would be fine in the morning.

"Mom, something's wrong. And it's not just me. Tell me. Please…" He was begging now, just hoping she would tell him what was going on.

"InuYasha...I...I'm..." Izumi couldn't finish that sentence. It was going to be harder to tell her son that she was dying than it had been to tell her parents that she was pregnant at fourteen. InuYasha pulled his mom into a hug, ignoring the physical pain he was going through. All that mattered was that his mom was okay. He wasn't about to let her get hurt. He was going to find out what was going on. Whatever it was, it must be bad, because his mother looked half dead trying to tell him whatever it was that she was going to tell him.

"InuYasha…I'm…not well." Izumi tried to find a nice way to put it, but now it just sounded like she was sick. _I have to tell him, and preferably before three-o-clock tomorrow…this is gonna be hard._

"Are you sick? Is that it? Mom, tell me what's going on, please." The look in his eyes was all the motivation Izumi needed to get the words out, even though they were going to hurt.

"Baby, I'm…dying" Izumi looked at the floor as she said it, there was no way she was going to look into the eyes of her son as she told him the painful truth.

"Mom…" He didn't even care that she called him baby, he was just so…sad, and yet, he was so very calm.

"I…you…you're going to go live with a friend of mine. I don't have long." Still she stared at the floor, her fingernails, anything but the raw emotion in her son's eyes.

"How long?" It was all InuYasha could manage to say. He was fighting back tears, and losing quite horribly, his face was already stained with tears.

"Go put on some clean clothes." The look she gave him was pleading; she just needed a little time. He took the two long steps across the hall to go to his room to put on clothes. InuYasha came out to see his mother looking at him, she looked into his eyes, and smiled.

"Come, I'll tell you everything." She led him back down the short hallway to the front room, and sat on the couch, motioning for him to sit beside her.

A/N: Well?? How did I do? Don't worry, the plot gets better in the later chapters. (couldn't put all the good stuff in the first chapter could I?) Please review, you know you want to...well maybe not, but I would appreciate it


	2. Prophecy

**A/N-** I was amazed when I went to lunch (I so did NOT post the first chapter during my world history class) and discovered that I already had a review. Eek! So happy n.n

**Disclaimer-** yeah…I don't, and never will, own InuYasha.

**Chapter 2**

InuYasha sat beside his mother on the couch. She was sitting cross-legged facing him, so he decided to copy her. It would be impossible to tell who was more surprised at how well InuYasha was taking the news, unless of course one could read their minds.

_This is all my fault, I should have known, she smells sick. Is it curable?? What exactly is wrong? Why hasn't she told me? I could have fixed it! Well…maybe not, but I could have helped. What did I do, how did she get sick?!? Oh, this is all my fault! I need her to stay alive! She's young, what could possibly be wrong?? How did I manage to let this happen? She's going to say it's not my fault, but it is…how did this happen? If it isn't my fault, I will kill whoever made her sick._

Izumi watched as many emotions ran across her son's features. Guilt, hope, confusion, dread, more guilt, sadness, and anger. _Oh no. he must be mad at me for not telling him. I should have told him. I knew that waiting this long wasn't a good thing. I've know for so long. I should have told him… he's strong. I know that he can, no, will get over this. He will be fine. He is a prince after all. Prices are strong. They don't collapse. There's so much I have to tell him, and so little time. I just hope that he doesn't hate his father. Alazia will need him to be strong._

"Pay attention, and do try to not interrupt me too horribly often, ok?" Izumi just needed to tell him, too many interruptions and she might not have the will to continue on.

"Okay, I can try." _How did I make this happen?!? My mom can't die! She's my mom! What did I do?? _The way he thought of his mother at this moment was much like the way a small child would.

"Once upon a time," Izumi could think of no better beginning to her story, and when InuYasha looked about to interrupt with a remark about her choice of words, she gave him a stern look and continued on.

"There was a land called Alazia. There was a king, a queen, and a child on the way. The day that the queen gave birth, her sister came to the castle. At about midday, the queen went into labor, and her sister stayed with her until a prince was born. The tradition was to have a family member who had witnessed the birth bless the child. So when the queen's sister took the infant into her arms and began whispering, everyone became quiet to hear the blessing. Instead of a blessing, a prophecy was bestowed upon the young prince.

"There was not much said about the prince himself, other than he would have a long prosperous life, but much was said about the sons he would have. The prince would have two sons. The first would be much older than the second, and there would be no other children. The elder of the two would be extraordinarily powerful, and just as graceful. But to counter his power and grace, he would be cold of heart, even to those who love him.

"The younger son would also be powerful, but it would take much time for him to grow into his power. He, unlike his brother, would love, and be loved. The younger son's mother would die before his sixteenth birthday of a strange disease with no cure. Because of how cold the elder son would be, the younger would take the throne after his father, and the elder would not go down without a fight. In this battle, one of the two would be maimed."

Izumi looked almost fearful at this last statement, but continued on. "After the prophecy was made, even though the queen was quite surprised that her sister was capable of prophesizing, the family continued in the naming of the prince. His name became InuTaisho.

"InuTaisho grew to be the powerful and loved king of Alazia, and his queen soon bore him a son. The prince was named Sesshomaru. InuTaisho had two swords made, one for each of his sons. Even though he had only one son at that time, he knew of the prophecy, so he knew there would be another son. One of the swords, Tenseiga, could bring back the lives of one hundred souls in one single stroke, and the other, Tetsaiga, could take the lives of one hundred in a single stroke. Even though he knew the prophecy well, InuTaisho left the Tenseiga to Sesshomaru.

"Just a few months after Sesshomaru was born, the queen became pregnant again. This did not follow the prophecy at all, which was strange; no prophecy had ever been broken before. As it turns out, the prophecy was not broken, the queen and the unborn child died of a fever. The king was devastated, and left the country for a short period. He left one of his cousins in charge, and promised not to be gone long.

"Instead of going to a neighboring country, he used his sword to make a tear in the plains. He left the plain he was on to come to the one we currently live on. When he got here, he met a girl. She was very young, and he was almost two hundred years old, though he looked about seventeen to the eyes of humans. The girl fell in love with InuTaisho, and he left five months before the girl gave birth to his second son. He knew about his son, and although he never actually met him, he made sure that he was kept safe."

InuYasha just stared at his mom, he thought he knew what she was saying, but there was no way that he was a prince. "I'm not him, the second son…am I?"

"I knew you would understand, tomorrow you will go to Alazia, and when you are eighteen, you will take the throne. I know that you will want to stay here with me, but I don't want you to see me die in a week. My last week will be spent with your grandfather, I have a lot of explaining to do, he disowned me when he found out I was pregnant with you, and I want him to understand everything before I die."

InuYasha had attempted to interrupt his mom at least four times during her last explanation, and now was his chance to argue. "Mom, I'm not leaving you here to die, and I don't want to rule some place I've never heard of, and never been to. And I refuse to go live with some father who didn't have the guts to stick it out with you, and I'm definitely not going to live in a place with a brother who wants to kill me, that would be just plain stupid."

Izumi looked sad, and had to explain to InuYasha his father's reason for leaving. "InuYasha, your father didn't just up and leave us, in fact, if it was up to him, he would have stayed here with us. His cousin was changing Alazia too much, and was attempting to completely take over. He has even come here a few times since then, but I have sent him back, he never even got to see you. Oh, and you won't see your brother for quite some time, he's living on our plain somewhere in New York, and probably won't return to Alazia until you are almost eighteen."

"Oh…well, I'm still not leaving you here to die, you're my mom, and I will take care of you, and you won't die."

Izumi smiled at her son's stubbornness, he was going to be a great ruler, she was just sad that her sixteen years with him had gone by so fast. InuTaisho would take good care of him, she knew he would. "InuYasha, you will go to Alazia, you will listen to your father, and you will make me proud as their next king, do you understand me?" She was amazed at how stern her voice had sounded, and InuYasha obviously was too, because the only other time she had sounded so stern was when he had gotten into a fight and had been stabbed in the chest with a jagged edged dagger and tried to cover it up. She hated when he tried to hide things from her.

"But…do I have to? I mean, couldn't I wait a week, until I'm sixteen?" He knew he was fighting a losing battle, and it almost brought him to tears knowing that he wouldn't get to spend time with his mother during her last week. He fought back the tears brimming in his eyes, he would be strong, and make his mother proud.

Izumi saw the tears forming in InuYasha's eyes, and smiled at how hard he was trying to keep them from falling, so she would take only a minute more of his time, even though she knew that that wasn't what he wanted. "You will go tomorrow, and that is final. Take off your shirt, and I will redress your wounds before you go to bed."

InuYasha watched as his mother went to go get gauze and scissors, and removed his shirt, he knew that his wounds had already healed, and that it was almost dawn, but his mother didn't seem to notice how long they had been talking, and he wasn't about to point it out to her either. He decided to go make her breakfast, it was the least he could do on his last day with her. Izumi returned to the living room only to see that her son was not there, she turned to the kitchen at the sound of banging pots and pans.

_What the hell is he doing? It's the middle of the night, crazy boy. _It was then that Izumi saw a clock, and she literally jumped when she saw what time it was. _It's five forty-five, and I didn't notice! I must be getting old…I'm not even thirty yet! Well…I guess I am now, what is today? April thirteenth was yesterday…yeah, I'm thirty. Wow I'm old. I have six days, unless I die at midnight on the twentieth, in which case I have only five… oh well, I still have plenty of time to talk to my dad. If he wouldn't listen to me then, he will listen to me now, he won't be able to help it, I look just like mom did._

"Hey mom, you want eggs and bacon, or and omelet?" Izumi was startled out of her thoughts, and remembered what she had been doing.

"Eggs and bacon, and why are you making breakfast, get over here so that I can cover those wounds."

"I'm fine mom, they healed already, two eggs or three, and how many pieces of bacon do you want?"

"Two, three pieces of bacon" Izumi was amazed at how calm he sounded, and knew that he had put up a wall around himself so that he wouldn't break down. It made her sad to think of him having to put up a wall, and wished that she could help, but knew that she wouldn't be able to. She just hoped that the woman he would marry would be able to get through that wall, because she knew that he would keep the wall up as long as he could, and he was very strong willed. That reminded her.

"InuYasha, you do know that you will need a queen, right? You have two years and four days to find her, I wish you luck." There was the sound of a pan hitting the floor, and InuYasha cussing as he went to clean up the mess. Izumi smiled at her son's surprise, and went to the kitchen. InuYasha was crouching on the floor cleaning up the spilled eggs and bacon.

Izumi had a wonderful idea at that point, "Leave it, get dressed, and meet me in the car, you have two minutes."

"Can't I take a shower? I kind of really want to take one, I smell like blood and peroxide." InuYasha winced at the mention of the smells; it had been driving him crazy.

"Fine, twenty minutes, and I expect that wonderful hair to be dry by then, got it?"

"I'll be done in fifteen."

Izumi watched her son head to his bathroom, stopping off at the closet to grab a towel. She cleaned up the mess in the kitchen, and was surprised at how little of a mess it actually was. She wasn't quite ready to let her baby go, and she wanted to take him out to breakfast. She didn't know why she wanted to go out to eat, she never really liked eating out, but today she just wanted someone else to do the cooking and cleaning while she spent time with her son on his last day with her.

_If I wanted to, I could keep him until his birthday. No. That would just be too hard on me, and definitely too hard on him. Besides, he needs the time to get used to the people he will be around most of the time, and his tutors. Yes, they will need some time together before they all head back to Alazia. I think he will like Miroku and Kagome, oh, and Sango. That poor girl. She doesn't even know that Miroku loves her. One day she will figure it out. Poor Krys, she had to take care of them until they go back. The last time I saw her, she was delivering a letter from InuTaisho. How I miss that demon. Oh! I might want to explain to InuYasha the human and demon…social arrangement in Alazia. He would be quite confused when he got there if I didn't. _There was the sound of the water shutting off. _Wow. That was fast. I better get dressed, and figure out how to remember to tell him about that. And I need a piece of his hair…_

InuYasha walked out of the bathroom, hair dripping wet, and a towel draped across his hips. The cuts and bruises he had had the night before were now gone, and there was no evidence that hey had ever been there. Izumi followed him to the doorway of his room, where he turned around and looked at her with a questioning gaze.

"Mom, what are you…" Izumi then plucked out one of his hairs, making sure to get the root. "Ow! What was that for?!" InuYasha then rubbed his head where the hair had previously been, it was amazing how much one little hair can hurt.

"We are going to need your DNA to fake your death."

**A/N – **Well, whadda ya think? I really don't like leaving off at points that would make sense to anybody else. That and I'm really tired…good night all, I promise to post this at lunch tomorrow. Oh! And please review, cuz I like reviews n.n


	3. His Clothes

**A/N- **so so _so _sorry I'm late updating, I lost my chapter (apparently I didn't transfer it back to my computer after I had it on my mom's laptop for our trip to Arizona) so here's the chapter, it definitely won't take so long for me to post the next chapter. Ok, yes I am going to be lame and use the same last name everyone else uses for InuYasha i.e. Takahashi

**Disclaimer- **Rumiko Takahashi still owns InuYasha, and I am not her, I'm fifteen…she's…not

**Chapter 3**

Still rubbing his head, InuYasha gawked at his mother, pretending he heard her wrong. "…To do what?"

"You heard me, how else will we explain your disappearance? We don't need a search party out there looking for you, now do we?" Izumi acted as if though it were quite obvious that his death would be faked.

"Well, I guess not…but…how are you going to do it?" InuYasha asked, confused, and hoping for some clarification.

"You'll see." Izumi turned to go back to the kitchen. "Oh. Right, go get dressed, wear something nice…actually, hold on a sec." Instead of going to the kitchen as she had planned, Izumi turned to her bedroom, and disappeared into her closet. InuYasha heard his mother digging around for something, and was about to go help her find it, when she stepped out of the closet holding what InuYasha thought looked like a body bag.

"Found it!" Izumi exclaimed with a smile. She headed back over to her son, and handed him the bag. "Here, go put this on, it should fit quite nicely, you look just the right size." InuYasha was curious as to what she was up to with all the smiles, but decided not to ruin her fun with questions.

InuYasha headed to his room, how quite dry, and wondering if his hair was almost dry, considering how long it had taken to get from the bathroom to his room. He looked at the bag his mother had given him, and decided that if it was holding a body, it was definitely a very small child, it didn't weigh much. Once in his room, InuYasha closed the door, and laid the bad on his bed, heading to his dresser to get boxers. He chose a pair of red plaid ones, his favorite. He didn't know why they were his favorite, they just were, maybe it was the color. Red was his favorite color, and had been for as long as he could remember, not that he could figure out why. Now clad in the boxers, hair dripping down his back, InuYasha went to go discover what exactly his mother had handed him. It smelt odd, something he had faintly smelt before, but couldn't link to any particular memories, things, or people even. That was odd, and he wanted to know what was in the bag, he knew it was clothing of some sort, though pretending that the bag contained a body was quite fun, and didn't even take up much imagination.

As InuYasha picked up the bag to unzip it, he noticed a small pink sticky note stuck to the back of it. Being as curious as a cat, quite odd for a dog demon, he was almost forced by his subconscious to grab the note and read it. The note was written in a maroon ink, in a long tight handwriting, any longer, and the note would have looked like a lot of Ls.

_Dear Izumi,_

_I know it had been quite some time since my last visit, and I plan to sneak away for a few days sometime in the middle of next month. I would like you to hold onto these for me for until then, because this type of clothing is not…normal in Alazia. I can barely wait until the next time I see you._

_With Love,_

_InuTaisho_

InuYasha wondered how long ago the note had been written, and if his mother knew that it was still on the bag. At least now he knew what the scent was now, it was his father. That also explained why he hadn't recognized the scent even though it was familiar. Finally opening the bag of clothes, InuYasha found that the clothes were not to horrible. He had expected that his mother would make him wear some weird article from the eighties. He then laid out the garments to make sure that they were in fact normal.

Before him lie black slacks that looked about the right length, though he though that his father might have had a wider waist than he did. The shirt was what InuYasha liked, it wasn't anything really about the style or fit of the shirt, it was the color. Anything red and he was bound to like it, well, usually. The shirt was that of a normal dress shirt, collar, cuffed sleeves, the usual. All in a deep maroon. All InuYasha needed was shoes, because even he knew that tennis shoes weren't exactly made to go with dress clothes. But at the moment, that wasn't his problem, he needed to get dressed.

InuYasha slipped on the pants, and found that the waist looked bigger than it actually was, because the pants fit perfectly. Assuming that the shirt fit as well as the pants did, he was the exact same size of his father. Even though he knew that it was quite normal to resemble your parents in looks and size, but to be exactly the same size…that was just plain weird. He slipped on the shirt and, no surprise, it fit just as well as the pants. The shirt clung to him in a way that didn't leave much to the imagination, and the deep maroon was a great contrast to his silver hair. InuYasha looked in the mirror, wondering if he looked just like his father, even though he knew that there were some major differences. His father would have had to have been a full demon, so their looks wouldn't have matched exactly. It felt weird to know that he resembled a man he had never met.

InuYasha left his room clad in the outfit that his mother had picked out for him. He was amazed that he didn't hate the outfit. He almost never liked the outfits that his mother liked.

"You look just like your father, so handsome." Izumi tossed InuYasha the keys to her car, "go start the car, you're driving."

"Do they have cars in Alazia?" InuYasha inquired of his mother.

"Sorry, but the closest thing to a car in Alazia is a horse drawn carriage. I'll explain as much as I can over breakfast. There's a little convenience store on 36th Street, a few streets down the hill from Asotin Street where your uncle lives, do you remember it? We are going to make a quick stop there and then go to your uncle's house. Well…no, let's just go to your uncle's, he always did make the world's best omelets. Now go start the car, I'll be out in a minute." Izumi said as she went back into her room and began rummaging through the drawer on her nightstand.

**A/N**- Yes, this is where I am going to leave off. Deal. It's late, and I just found, and added to the chapter, so be happy anything was posted at all. I plan on posting Friday. writes down deadline so I actually do it review please, it makes me happy


	4. Kennewick

**A/N-** Bleh. I could make excuses about being sick, and having Christmas, and my birthday, and finals and all that, but you came here to read the story…right?

**Disclaimer- **InuYasha and I got in a fight, he is free, no longer mine; not that I want him to be, humph that jerk. Lol, still don't own him, not that I have tried stealing him…that would get rather complicated.

**Chapter 4**

InuYasha went out to the car, a white Dodge Stratus, and just stood next to it staring at the steering wheel for a moment before unlocking it. After unlocking all of the doors, he proceeded to get into the vehicle, and once again, stare at the steering wheel. He was going to miss driving. He loved this car. At first he had hated it, but once he started driving, it was a great car.

Deciding that he might as well start the car and find a station playing something good that his mom would be okay with, InuYasha put the key in the ignition. He was about to turn the key, when he heard something. No human would have heard it, and most demons wouldn't have either. The wonders of being a dog demon. At first it was just the rustle of papers, he could tell that the noises were coming from his mother's room, and thought nothing of it; she was after all, going through a drawer. There were probably papers in that drawer. The thing that caused him to pause was the sound of footsteps. His mother wasn't moving her feet, and even if she was, her steps were different sounding from whoever was making the noise. The footsteps were to light to be just a person walking, they were going to sneak up on her.

InuYasha jumped out of the car, narrowly avoiding hitting his head on the doorjamb, and ran towards his house. He could tell that the person was a woman, and was heading from the living room towards his mother's room. He was fast, so he knew that he would beat them there, but what was he to do when he got there? As he ran he wasn't thinking of what to do, just that he had to make sure his mom was okay.

To any onlookers it would look as if though InuYasha was in the car one second and gone the next, just a blur of color speeding towards the house and jumping over it. What a strange thing to see.

InuYasha had never run so fast in his life. His mother's room had a glass door in that lead to the backyard, and it was never locked. Never. InuYasha knew that he would be able to get to his mother before the other presence in the house, so long as that door was unlocked. If the door was locked, he would have to knock, and the presence in his home would take advantage of the noise to rush in to his mother's room.

The door was unlocked. InuYasha absentmindedly thanked himself for getting locked out of the house as often as he did when he was younger. He also thanked the cat for letting itself in so frequently at night. Because of the cat's mischievous ability to open the sliding door, it was greased enough to be silent, even he could barely hear it. As InuYasha crept into the room, he could tell that whoever was trying to get to his mother was not very skilled at sneaking; they had to move at an extraordinarily slow pace. As silently as he could he got into view of his mother, and as she was about to say something, he signaled to be silent. He carefully picked her up, and jumped back over the house, placing her next to the car. The person was almost to his mother's room, so he ran back into her room before Izumi could say a word.

InuYasha had been hiding behind a wall so that his mother wouldn't notice that he was crushed, without that wall, his demon blood would take over. He knew that he wouldn't remember what happened, but he wanted the person in his house to be tortured. He slowly let down the wall protecting him from his demon side, and as the wall crumbled, everything went black.

Izumi watched as InuYasha jumped over their house, and was still amazed at how easily he did it. In no more than thirty seconds, he was back in the driveway. She noticed that his eyes were red, but once he came within a yard of her, they turned back to normal. She almost didn't see the red in his eyes, and wouldn't have noticed had he not been growling.

Izumi lightly asked "InuYasha, what just happened?"

"There was somebody in there, and they were going to kill you with this." InuYasha held up a dagger that was jagged on one side. Izumi's eyes widened at the sight of the dagger, and then she looked at the ground.

"Get in the car, we have to leave." She slowly took the two steps to the passenger side of the car and got in. InuYasha got into the driver's seat, started the car, and drove. He was headed towards his uncle's house, assuming that they would be going there, but his mother told him to head to Yakima. An hour and a half later, she told him to pass Yakima, and head to Kennewick. When they got to the exit for Kennewick, Izumi gave InuYasha directions to a house on Nevada Street.

Izumi pulled a garage door opener out of her purse, but InuYasha parked in the driveway. Izumi gave him a questioning look, but left it; he could park wherever he wanted. As they went inside the house, Izumi hit the button on the wall to close the garage door, and firmly closed the door leading into the house behind her. The ride from Seattle was silent aside from Izumi's guidance. But now they both knew that they had to talk.

The house was well taken care of, and when InuYasha asked who lived there, Izumi told him that her father lived here up until the middle of the previous year, and that she paid a maid to live in it and keep it somewhat clean. It was spotless. At the moment nobody was there, it seemed odd to InuYasha, so he asked about it. Izumi told him that the maid who had been taking care of the place had left two days before, but would be back in three more days.

InuYasha sat down in a large comfortable looking chair, and Izumi lay down on a couch, and turned to where she could see her son. "I have a lot to say, and I only have until three to say it, ok? Izumi looked at a clock as she said this, and to her dismay, it was two thirty. She decided that she might as well begin her explaining, or he would go to Alazia and be stunned.

"In Alazia the arrangement between demons and humans is different from how it is here. Here there are about as many demons as humans, and humans and demons don't get along so well, hanyous like you are rare, and don't fit in with demons or humans." Izumi looked sad at that last statement, but continued. "In Alazia, humans outnumber demons two to one. In spite of that, or even because of it, demons are looked up to, most royalty and noble people are demons, but there is some human nobility. Half demons like you are not looked up to, but not always looked down upon. Life will be easier for you there. Do you understand this much?" Izumi paused only long enough for InuYasha to nod. "When you get there, it will seem like you stepped back in time. There are castles, you will live in the biggest one, horse drawn carriages, frankly the only modern thing they have there is running water. Oh, and the clothes. Your father got tired of having to change from the fashion there to the fashion here every time he crossed plains. So the clothes you are wearing will fit in with the people higher up in society. Come to think of it, clothes like you are wearing are about all that is like ours. I tried to take pictures while I was there last time, but our technology doesn't seem to work on their plain." InuYasha looked sad at that last statement, and tossed his ipod onto the floor. Izumi ignored this, and was about to continue, when a grandfather clock that was hidden around a corner chimed. It was three-o-clock, and knowing Krys, the door would be opening any second.

InuYasha was startled when the door opened. Four people entered the house. The first one in was a young man maybe a year older than InuYasha with brown hair held in a short pony tail at the nape of his neck, and deep violet eyes. InuYasha was surprised by this; he had never seen anyone with purple eyes before. The second person was a girl who appeared to be a year younger than InuYasha. She had long brown hair that was held in a high ponytail that reached down to the small of her back, and she had light brown eyes that were currently glaring at the man in front of her. A girl who InuYasha judged to be about the same age as himself entered next. She had black almost blue hair that was almost as long as the other girl's and her eyes were a deep dark brown. Izumi jumped up as the last person entered the room. She was a woman about the same age as Izumi, and InuYasha recognized the woman from a picture on his mother's desk at his home. She had dirty blonde hair that reached her shoulders, and blue eyes that seemed to turn green at the sight of Izumi.

Izumi let out an 'eek!' when she saw Krys, she knew that she would be coming, but she was still exited about it. "I've missed you _so_ much!!" She exclaimed as she ran to embrace her best friend. In an undertone she added, "Sorry you had to take care of these three for the past month, but I couldn't have them staying with me, InuYasha would have figured it out too soon."

Krys laughed, "It's okay, besides, I think they started to grow on me, too bad they have to leave tomorrow. I seriously can't believe I still remembered the way here, the last time we were here, we were thirteen, and then you moved here. Wait, let me get a good look at InuYasha, where did he go, he was right there a second ago…" Krys motioned towards the couch.

"I'm in the kitchen, is anybody else hungry? I'm starved." Izumi laughed at InuYasha's ability to focus more on food than on the new arrivals.

All five of the people in the other room headed towards the kitchen to see InuYasha sitting on the counter swinging his legs and eating instant ramen. "InuYasha, you left the microwave open…why don't you make us all some? And get to know these three young people while I catch up with Krys? We'll be in the living room if you need anything."

InuYasha only looked up long enough to see that he had a clear space to land before heading back to the cupboard he had been searching for food in just a few minutes ago. "Beef or chicken? Oh, or shrimp?" He looked back over his shoulder to see the 'young people' looking at him. Then all of a sudden, the girl with black hair fell to her knees and put her head on the ground in a bow. "Your Highness." InuYasha look startled, and took a step back noticing that the other two were following her lead. They weren't getting up, and it took him a second to realize that they were waiting for him to tell them to. "Um…could you get up…please?" He asked, hoping that they would rise, this was definitely weird, they were treating him like royalty. Then it hit him, he was royalty. The three rose, and the girl who had bowed first looked at the food InuYasha was going to prepare.

"Here your Highness, let me make that for you, you shouldn't be cooking for us." The girl seemed to be bothered by InuYasha making the food for them. Though it slightly amused him, InuYasha refused to not make the ramen, he wanted to, he liked cooking… not that putting water in a container and then putting it in the microwave was cooking, but he still wanted to.

"It's okay, really, I want to make it, so, which flavor?" It seemed that the girl wouldn't go against his wishes, and smiled up at her stubborn prince, boy was her life going to get hard.

"Chicken, please." Was all she could muster.

The boy wanted shrimp, and seemed to be amazed that there was actually shrimp in his ramen. The other girl took a minute deciding, and finally chose chicken. All three of the people with InuYasha seemed to be uncomfortable talking to him, not that he said much, and seemed to be relieved when he left them in silence for a minute while the ramen was in the microwave to go talk to his mother for a minute.

"Hey mom?" InuYasha called as he walked into the living room.

"Yes dear, what do you need?" Izumi did not seem to be bothered that her son had just interrupted her conversation with Krys, and could tell that something was bothering him.

"Is there any way that I could get them to…stop treating me like royalty?" InuYasha definitely couldn't handle being treated like royalty, especially considering the way he had always been treated by anyone other than his mother. He often times came home with near fatal wounds when he was younger. He hadn't known why people treated him as they did, or why they called him 'half breed'. Even then, he had to ask his mother to tell him, and that was the first time he actually saw her cry, though he had heard her crying many times. Even after InuYasha learned to defend himself, he still came home wounded rather frequently. The new treatment from the three of his peers he was assuming were from Alazia was rather disconcerting.

"If you ask them, they would willingly chop off their own heads, and smile while doing so if you told them to. You wouldn't even have to ask nicely." Izumi saw the look of horror on her son's face, and knew that he would never take advantage of his new power over people.

"You…you're kidding…right? They wouldn't listen to me, why should they… they don't know me." InuYasha looked down, "Besides, I'm just a filthy half-breed."

Izumi got up and slapped her son as hard as she could. The resounding noise made the three eavesdroppers in the kitchen flinch. "Don't you _ever_ say that again! Do you hear me InuYasha?"

"Yes. I'm sorry mother, it won't happen again." InuYasha tried to look anywhere but at his mother, but somehow he had to, and could tell that he had truly disappointed her.

"Good, now go back in there, and get to know those three; you will be around them for… probably the rest of your life, actually." Izumi sat back down and started up the conversation she had been having with Krys; acting as if though InuYasha had already obeyed her command.

Not wanting to bother his mother anymore, he decided to just do as she says. At the moment, the last thing he needed was the wrath of Izumi. The woman took tough love to the next level. Not that many people saw that, she normally was the epitome of nice, and only unleashed her fury when she had a good reason. InuYasha smiled, that was definitely something he got from her. He may not look just like her, in fact, he didn't resemble her much at all, but if their personalities were to be tested against one another, it would be rather hard to determine who was who just by the results.

Both were stubborn, had a temper to fear, strength, and an uncanny ability to say the wrong thing; though both could also be compassionate, empathic, and even if they did say the wrong thing, they had a way with words that could make everything funny in the end.

As InuYasha walked back into the kitchen, he could tell that the three had been listening, though it would have been hard to tell if he couldn't hear them talking about his conversation with his mother the whole way back. Apparently, they didn't mind him much, which he supposed was a good thing. He arrived just as the microwave finished cooking their food, and went to get it, and handed them each their cup of ramen to get them all forks.

"So…I'm InuYasha if you haven't heard, um…what are your guys' names…I don't recall hearing them?" InuYasha fidgeted under the gaze of the girl with black hair, it was like she was peering into his soul.

"I'm Kagome Higurashi, your Highness." She did a slight bow that reminded InuYasha of a curtain call on Broadway; she had definitely practiced her bow.

"Miroku Drake, your Highness." He copied Kagome's graceful bow, and looked up and decided to stare at the remaining girl's behind; InuYasha decided to ignore this.

"I'm Kagome's cousin, Sango Higurashi, your Highness." She bowed, not noticing that Miroku's eyes lit up as she bent over, giving him quite a nice view.

"Hey um…could you guys not do that…bowing and being formal thing…it makes me feel kinda weird…" InuYasha looked completely flustered, and didn't quite seem to know what to do with his hands, finally deciding to rest them on the counter behind him.

Kagome smiled, she hated formalities, "Sure um…" Was she allowed to call him by his name?

"Just call me InuYasha, okay?"

"Thanks InuYasha." InuYasha found it hard to break her gaze, and could only do so when he heard a resounding slap echo throughout the kitchen. He looked over to see Miroku's hand fall from Sango's but, and he had a glowing red handprint on his face. Sango was bright red and fuming.

Over the next half hour, four got to know each other, and InuYasha decided that this Alazia place had some pretty okay people. He also noticed that though he had asked them not to be formal, they still treated him like royalty. He would have to do something about that. It bugged him a lot, enough to get his eyebrow to twitch every time someone did something to show that he was above them.

"Will you guys please treat me as your equal?? I'm _not _a prince; at least not until I go to Alazia, and even then, just treat me as your equal, and I will do the same." InuYasha did not want to let on that if they said no, he would get on his knees and beg, totally forgetting that he could just order them to do as he says.

Kagome and Sango had to stifle their laughs, they had been trying to bug him, and it was obviously working. Miroku just nodded his head and smiled, he liked the prince already, and they were getting along quite well.

Everyone stayed the night at the house, and InuYasha decided that humans sleep a lot. He knew his mother slept for a long time, but she was usually exhausted when she went to bed. He slept for about four hours and he was fully rested, for two nights. It seemed that no matter how long he was awake, four hours of sleep later and he would be fine. How could humans sleep for ten hours?

InuYasha decided to sit in a tree in the back yard for a while. From his spot in the tree, he could see into the room Sango and Kagome were sharing. It seemed that they were cold. They had their backs to each other, were holding on to the blankets with death grips, and were shivering. Deciding that he didn't want anyone to be cranky in the morning, he decided to turn the heat up in the house, and give the girls another blanket. It seemed that whoever actually lived in the house liked their temperature to be at sixty two degrees from ten to eight. InuYasha turned it up to sixty eight. It would go up to seventy at eight, and it was five, so the girls would be fine.

InuYasha thought as he went back to his spot in the tree. _I can't seem to figure this out. Shouldn't they be different? They live in…an alternate universe from what I get. But they act just like people from here. And they seem to dress the same too. I know I've seen clothes like those before, and they don't look strange at all. Then again, mom said that they had been living here for a month. _InuYasha looked down to see that Sango was getting up. _Well at least one of them doesn't sleep all day. How do they do that? I can't stay in bed for five hours, and they seem to like being in bed. Humans are strange. _InuYasha had very little contact with humans throughout his life. He had no friends, and aside from his mother, he never slept in the same house as a human, and their sleep patterns were strange to him.

InuYasha blushed furiously and turned to watch the sky as Sango began to take off her nightgown to get dressed. _I leave today. I will never see mom again…ever. _He almost cried. But decided it would be better not to cry, his mother could always tell when he had been crying, and he didn't want her to be sad.

It seemed that Kagome also got up early, and Miroku had made his way to the kitchen already. Sango and Kagome had decided on matching outfits the night before, and it appeared that they let themselves differ in color. They were wearing what appeared to be a private school uniform, a mini skirt that fell about halfway down the thigh, and a top that resembled something Sailor Moon would wear. Sango had a black skirt with a hot pink top. The edges of the top were black, as was the tie; the rim of the skirt was hot pink. Miroku had apparently attached his hand to Sango's but again, because he was sporting a red mark on the side of his face that looked suspiciously like a handprint. InuYasha personally liked what Kagome was wearing. It was just like Sango's, but instead of black and hot pink, hers was green and white.

After seeing what Miroku was wearing, InuYasha decided that they liked school uniforms. Weirdoes. Miroku had black dress pants, not too unusual; and a purple dress shirt with a black sports jacket.

InuYasha went inside for breakfast, and noon came too soon. They had decided that noon would be the time that they would leave. It was eleven fifty three, and Izumi was ready to drive to her father's house, and everyone had said their goodbyes to her except InuYasha. He wasn't going to say goodbye until the last possible second.

As he turned to look at the clock, it looked like the wall was tearing, and behind it was a blue place that was always shifting. Then, out of the blue place stepped InuTaisho.

**A/N – **And you all thought that I would give you pathetic excuses, and then give you another short chapter. Am I right? Well, please review. I wasn't sure about how this chapter was written, any comments are welcome (even the mean ones, those usually help a lot too) Well, I hope to have the next chapter up soon. Thank you to all my past reviewers, and anyone who intends to review.


	5. Three Words

**A/N - **fountain of tears I thought that the last chapter would be at least a _little_ bit long; it was eight whole pages on Word! sigh Well, I guess I'll just have to make a twenty page one this time, yeah, that would work… (Don't count on it)

**Disclaimer – **to all who wish to know, InuYasha will not be in my will, and for good reason; he is not of my personal belongings.

**Chapter 5**

The moment InuTaisho appeared the whole room when silent. Everyone had been talking, and it seemed that even when one's back was turned, it would be impossible to not notice InuTaisho's presence. It was the most commanding presence InuYasha had ever felt. He heard his mother gasp, but found that he could not turn away from his father no matter how hard he tried. InuTaisho's presence also had a strange effect on InuYasha's blood; his demon blood was fighting to be released, and it took quite a bit for InuYasha to conceal the battle.

"Do you always fight it?" It was the first thing that InuTaisho said, and he was not looking at anybody, but at a painting of a black lab that hung over the couch. It seemed that InuYasha was the only one who knew what he was talking about.

"So long as I can, I do." InuYasha remembered a few times when his demon blood had taken over; it was like he blacked out. He hated that he had no control when his demonic blood got the better of him.

"Let go, it will kill you if you never let it out. I won't let you do anything you will regret." InuTaisho looked sincere, and InuYasha knew he was telling the truth, but he didn't want his first real friends to see him like that.

For a few seconds InuYasha tried to think of an excuse to keep fighting, but could find none, so he let go; he heard a few gasps as he transformed, and then, everything went black.

Izumi watched as InuYasha transformed, and gasped when he seemed to start transforming again from his demonic state. He seemed to be transforming into a giant dog. All of a sudden, as his body began to shape like a dog's, and he grew larger, he stopped, returned turned into his human body, and passed out.

"InuYasha!" Izumi ran over to her son to catch him as he fell. What she didn't notice, is that Kagome collapsed just before InuYasha. When he had started the transformation from his half demon form, Kagome had become surrounded with a faint pink light, the further the transformation went, the brighter the light became. When he started to transform into a giant dog demon, the light expanded, and Kagome fainted. She had temporarily purified InuYasha's blood, which caused him to turn to his human form.

Sango caught Kagome, not seeing what happened to InuYasha after Kagome had glowed pink. The second the pink light had surrounded Kagome, Sango and Miroku both watched in amazement as their friend glowed so brightly they were almost blinded. In one last surge of light, Kagome had fallen, and neither Sango nor Miroku knew why; this had never happened before, not even Sango had seen anything like it, and she had been around Kagome her whole life.

Sango easily picked up Kagome and took her over to InuTaisho, only noticing the boy lying on the floor when she reached him. She didn't recognize the black haired boy lying there, but he resembled the new prince quite a lot.

"InuTaisho, who is this, and when did he get here…and where's InuYasha?" She was one of the many who had become close friends with the king, and found no need for formalities with the man.

"I think that he will tell you in his own time, but for now, we must leave, you hold Kagome, I'll grab the boy. Get your things together, and make sure that Miroku is prepared also; I must talk to Izumi about something for a minute. It won't be long." InuTaisho looked distracted as he said these things, which was unusual for the demon.

"Okay, would you like us to change into normal clothes, or should we keep the clothes from this place on?" It was then that the great king noticed what the teens were wearing, from the moment he had arrives, his eyes had been on either Izumi, or InuYasha, he really was losing it today.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot, change, and if you can manage it, try to put Kagome in normal clothes too, though I suggest that you find a way to keep Miroku away from her, though I doubt that he would try anything, the boy loves you too much." InuTaisho noticed that Sango tensed at his last words, and decided that the boy had not yet told her, and that she was still in the dark about the situation, he just hoped that she would brush it off.

"Heh, no he doesn't, he gets around. I think I can manage with Kagome, Krys will help me." She was looking at her feet until she motioned for Krys to come to the bedroom that she had shared with Kagome to help change her.

Miroku seemed to have heard the conversation, and was rather depressed seeing that Sango thought so badly of him, but decided to brush it off and would have changed, but was already in normal clothes; black slacks, and a purple button up shirt. He watched as InuTaisho went over to Izumi. He paused for a second in front of her, neither of them talking, before he grabbed her in a tight embrace. Miroku felt sorry for the man, he loved her, knew she was going to die, and knew that he only had a few minutes to talk to her before he had to leave her again.

She was running, she didn't know why, but she was. It was dark, and she was surprised that she hadn't tripped. She had been running for a while now. In the distance, she saw a light, and ran towards it. Something had happened, seeing the pink glow of the light, she remembered what had happened.

_Kagome watched as InuYasha started to transform. He stayed in a human looking form, and something inside of her flutter, she tried to keep control over the foreign feeling, and was doing well, until InuYasha proceeded to transform again, looking surprised, and getting a look of surprise from both parents. Whatever it was that was being held inside of her burst, and suddenly, she could feel InuYasha as if she were in his arms. He didn't want to do this, she could tell, and the strange feeling did the rest, trying to return him to normal, except it went too far, he turned human. His beautiful silver hair turned black, his sunrise eyes turned a violet to rival Miroku's, and the puppy-dog ears atop his head that she loved disappeared, being replaced with human ones on the sides of his head. It took too much energy; she fainted from the exhaustion, hoping that InuYasha would be okay._

The Pink light became more intense as she grew nearer to it. It would no longer be considered walking, she was in a daze, and all she knew was that she was going towards the light, like in a dream. Come to think of it, where was she, was this all just a dream? InuTaisho would kill her if she fell asleep waiting for him. Oh boy, let this be real, strange, but real. The light was getting close; she could see something in the light. It seemed to be the source of it. Yes, something was definitely glowing pink.

As Kagome approached the glowing…thing, she noticed that it was a human figure. When she was what she guessed to be about ten yards away, she recognized it as a human figure. When she was five yards away, she noticed that the figure had an odd resemblance to her new prince. Her eyes grew wide, and the steady jog that she had been keeping turned into a short sprint, and she was by his side in an instant.

She was depressed at seeing him like this, he was amazing in his half demon form, but as a human, he just didn't quite compare. He was still handsome, as he held the same features, but she quite preferred him in his half demon state.

The boy was lying on…what was he lying on? It wasn't until Kagome reached the boy that she wondered where they were. It seemed as if though they were floating on thin air. No…clouds. Yes, they were definitely on clouds. InuYasha was lying there, glowing, and not moving. At all. He wasn't breathing. Kagome had some experience with CPR, but most of it included a doll, not a prince.

Deciding that the worst thing that could happen would be that the young prince would remain as he was, Kagome knelt by InuYasha, preparing to breathe into him. Strangely enough, he opened his eyes, and glared at her. She rocked back onto her heels, and fell onto her butt.

"What the heck!? You aren't breathing! How are you alive?" She was bewildered beyond all reason, and was expecting some pathetic excuse about demons not needing to breathe all the time.

"Neither…are…you…" InuYasha rasped. His voice seemed to be eluding him, along with any strength he had ever had. Even when he had been in his human state previously, he had always had some sort of strength; he was never left so weak. It took all of his energy to say those three words, and as Kagome's eyes widened, he closed his eyes again.

Kagome knew that the young prince wouldn't be waking up anytime soon, and that his energy was gone, but he looked so uncomfortable, and helpless. Deciding it would be the least that she could do to make him comfortable, considering it was her fault that he was like this in the first place, she rested his head on her lap, and pondered why they were not breathing, subconsciously sending some of her energy into him.

Kagome finally decided that she didn't care that they were not breathing, though it did point to her being in a dream. Though she would never dream of having an injured prince in her lap...she would find that too awkward, and was just hoping that he wouldn't notice upon his awakening. Instead of spending all of her time attempting to figure out if she was in a dream or not, Kagome wondered if InuYasha would still be a half demon, and if her did stay human, would he hate her?

InuYasha was starting to stir. Well…sort of; he was more twitching his eyebrow in a manner that made Kagome giggle, causing him to open his eyes, only to see her shining ocean eyes staring into his velvet violet ones. She couldn't help but think that his beauty, even as a human, rivaled that of his brother. The thought caused her to look down to her left hand, to see the gold band there.

InuYasha watched as Kagome's vibrant eyes dimmed upon looking at her hand, and when he turned to see why, she moved her hand behind her.

"It's nothing, I'm fine, how are you?" InuYasha wondered if she was an empath, she had answered his unasked question, and hid whatever had been bothering her before the question had fully formed in his mind.

"I…I'm fine." His voice was not much improved, it was still raspy, but not as raspy as before, and still he had trouble getting words out. He attempted to survey his surroundings, but decided that he was quite comfortable in his current position looking into Kagome's eyes. He then wondered how he was looking into her eyes, she wasn't leaning over him much, and come to think of it, the back of his head was warmer than the rest of his body. It took him a few seconds to figure that he was lying on Kagome's lap, and when he did figure it out, all he did was look up at her, confused.

One thought ran through his head, _What the hell happened? _It made no sense to him that he was in an unfamiliar place with no scent at all, and the only person he could smell was Kagome. He knew he was human, though he couldn't figure why.

Kagome looked down at her prince, almost reading his thoughts, "Would you like me to explain all of this to you?"

**A/N: **Only four pages if you were wondering. Sorry about the short chapter, I promise to have a longer chapter up next…time (yes I'm going to be evasive about a time). School has been a serious problem, but I have been feeling more up to writing lately (good for me and you) Please review, reviewshappy me, happy memore writing, more writingmore chapters, more chaptersmore entertainment for you; therefore, reviewsmore entertainment for you (by the transitive property) n.n


	6. Clouds

**A/N- **I know, I know, I'm a horrible person for not updating very often, and my last chapter was short, but hopefully I will have longer chapters out more often. I got a new computer, and I will be un-grounded in nine days, so expect the next chapter by then. If any of you would like to give me any suggestions, tips, remarks about how it is, I love reviews, all of them. Oh, and it would be greatly appreciated if any errors were pointed out.

**Disclaimer- **Rumiko Takahashi decided to invent InuYasha, so she kinda owns him…

**Chapter 6**

InuYasha patiently waited for Kagome to explain exactly where he was. He wasn't used to being so patient, but for some reason he just felt calm, relaxed, and he didn't mind that it had been a bit since Kagome opted to tell him what was going on. She seemed to be trying to find a good way to put it into words.

'I kinda…sorta…purified you?" Kagome blurted out, followed by a nervous giggle. She was going to be killed, by both InuYasha, and by InuTaisho. She hadn't even known the prince for a whole day, and somehow her miko powers were finally proven, in the worst possible way she could think of.

"Oh. I didn't know you were a miko…" On the outside, InuYasha was calm as pond water on a windless day; on the inside, he was crumbling, and wanted to kill the girl.

Kagome caught the fleeting look of murder in his eyes, and automatically flinched, that was the only time she couldn't look into eyes of gold. Why was she thinking that? His eyes were quite obviously violet, not even a trace of gold in them. The eyes she usually gazed at were cold, and she much preferred these ones, but that look, no matter how fleeting, caused her to look away.

"Did you mean to do it? Will it last forever?" Kagome was broken out of her trance by the prince's sad voice, and out of reflex, petted his hair.

"I'm so sorry pr…InuYasha, I didn't mean to. I…don't know if you are still a half demon…I'm sorry." Kagome stared into space, still absently petting InuYasha's long hair, she was almost in tears. She couldn't believe that she had purified him, for all she knew, she wasn't even a miko.

InuYasha was about to fall asleep again when he smelt salt. Wait, he smelt the tears, did this mean that he was a hanyou again? He would have jumped for joy had he not been laying in Kagome's lap. She was still absently petting his hair, and her tears were getting dangerously close to falling. She couldn't help it, and let one solitary tear slide slowly down her left cheek, resting on her jaw bone for a second before dropping into InuYasha's long silver hair.

"It's okay, Kagome, I'm fine, see?" Kagome looked down and saw the beautiful eyes that rivaled a sunset, and smiled, the tears in her eyes almost instantly drying. She was so happy that InuYasha would be fine, she almost jumped for joy, but decided to stay in her spot, not wanting to drop her young prince.

Kagome found it odd to think of anyone other than her fiancé as her prince. Usually, it was just Sesshoumaru. It was while she was thinking about him that she felt her wrist roughly being grabbed, and brought somewhere above her lap. She looked down to see InuYasha inspecting her engagement ring.

"This means the same thing in Alazia as it does in the world I come from, right?" He looked to be deep in thought, as if though he were thinking up his words before hand to get them just right. The look looked cute on him, and Kagome decided that he should think about what he says more often, just for that look.

"I think so. It means that I am betrothed, if that is what it means in your birth world. Oh, by the way, do you think we are still in your world? Or have we been carried to Alazia?" Inside she was secretly asking if he had said goodbye to his mom yet, but couldn't find a way to put it into words. She almost pitied him, she hadn't had been able to say goodbye to her father, he was there one minute, gone the next.

"I don't know, we have probably been carried to Alazia, my mother said something about a certain time. Who is he?" InuYasha refused to be sad. His mother would want him to be happy, not sad, besides, she wasn't dead yet. He needed something to distract him, and learning about Kagome would help him.

"You're probably right… oh, I can't believe it wasn't mentioned last night, Sango's been bugging me about it constantly since the day the papers were signed about a month ago. I am betrothed to your brother, Sesshomaru." Kagome thought about the way it had all happened, and confused herself, it just didn't seem right in her head, maybe she could talk to InuYasha about it; that would help, talking always seemed to help her.

"Oh, so you love him?" He wanted to know for some reason, he had to know that she was happy, because the look in her eye when she had gazed at the ring had not been a happy one. InuYasha was hoping that it was just worry for her fiancé that made the sad look come to her eyes.

"No, I don't. I don't think I ever will either, but I will try my best." InuYasha watched the beautiful young woman stare off into the never-ending sea of clouds set before them, and sat up.

"Take a walk with me, and tell me the story." He rose to his feet, and offered her his hand, hoping that she would take it, he wasn't going to force her, but he did want to see if the scenery ever changed in this odd place, but his true motive was to find out more about the woman whom he was starting to see as a good friend, the first he had ever had.

Kagome looked up at InuYasha, and decided that she might as well go with InuYasha, it wasn't like there was anyone else she could talk to, besides, he was growing on her.

"Well, I guess it goes along with the prophecy made at my birth. It goes something along the lines of me marrying the prince whose time of birth is the same as mine, us growing to love each other, something about saving each other, and for the most part, just being happy, oh, and I would bring him great power." Kagome had her eyebrows scrunched while she tried to recall all of the prophecy, and InuYasha almost laughed at her, but refrained, hoping for the whole story.

"When were you born?" InuYasha would learn two things from this question, her birthday, and the birthday of his older brother.

"I was born on April 20th, 780, at 3:44 in the morning. Sesshomaru was born on Febuary… 3rd, 220at 3:44 in the morning. Which makes our birth times the same."

InuYasha tried to remember the time of his birth, then he remembered that it was the last three digits in his phone number, three, four, four. He knew that he was born in the morning, and his birthday was April 20th, he didn't know what year in her standards.

"He's five hundred years older than you! Jeeze, and I thought that a ten year difference was gross. Oh, and we have the same birthday, exactly the same. It's actually quite creepy, now, on with the story."

Kagome took the time to process the new information, and ignored that she may have been meant for this prince, and not her betrothed, choosing instead to finish her story.

"My father had just died, and my mother sent me to the court of your father, requesting that he look after me for a while. Since he had no real reason to use upon request from members of the court, and Sesshomaru needed to chose a wife, he agreed, under the conditions that I agree to marry Sesshomaru by the end of this year. The wedding is set for December 25th. Oh! I guess it would help you to know that the calendar is the same in Alazia as in…what is tour plain called? Well, where you come from. Lets just call it Seattle, okay? That would make it easier." The prince nodded his head in agreement, not intending to interrupt her story.

"I agreed to marry him, and he signed the papers, so I guess he agreed, I think he just wanted InuTaisho to stop nagging him about finding a wife. I got a huge room in the castle, and I haven't seen my mother in a few months, but I will go visit her for a while in a few days." Kagome added the last bit about visiting her mother as if though she had just thought it up, and while she contemplated going about it, InuYasha took the chance to ask a few questions.

"You seem somewhat fond of my father, like you see him as a friend. Why?"

"Well, I got to know him while your brother was off doing things, and he helped me get over my father's death, I think of him almost like I thought of my father, and don't mind getting to call him dad. I know my real dad wouldn't mind" She laughed at the thought of her father getting mad over something so silly, he would laugh at her if she thought that he would get mad at her.

"Hmm, do you at least get along with Sesshomaru?" For some reason, her happiness was one of his concerns, he liked her smile, it made him want to smile with her.

"Well," The girl blushed, her face resembling a fire truck, "Uh, I guess we get along…in a way…" It took InuYasha a few seconds to get what she meant, and why she was blushing.

"Oh, so you sleep with him? Hmm, I would have thought you were too shy to get into bed with someone so…soon after being engaged, it doesn't even sound like you know the guy." InuYasha succeeded in making Kagome's blush deepen, and receiving a slap.

"You may be royalty, but I will still slap you for that! …jerk" Kagome was rather embarrassed that InuYasha had understood what she meant, and he made her feel bad, it was her duty as Sesshomaru's fiancé that she keep him happy, and bodily pleasures were part of that duty, it wasn't like she wanted to sleep with a guy who could barely stand to look at her.

"Hey! I was just saying what I thought!"

"Well don't say anything next time! I thought I could actually talk to you, but you're just a jerk!" Kagome was surprised by the change in InuYasha's character, he seemed so quiet and nice, though she was beginning to think that that was just a reflex because his mother was near, and would probably scold him for being rude, but she wasn't here at the moment, and he could be as rude as he wanted.

"I'm not a jerk, you just took it the wrong way!" InuYasha was not expecting Kagome to take his comment so seriously, he didn't mean for it to come out the way it did, it sounded nicer in his head…

"How could I take that the wrong way!? You just called me a slut!" Neither of the fighting pair noticed that as they became angry, the clouds changed to a dark blue color, resulting in the loss of a fair amount of light, leaving them in a much darker area, though still light enough to see well in.

The two continued fighting like this for some time, the fight not ending until Kagome kicked InuYasha in the shin and stormed about ten yards away, ignoring that he could quite easily see her turned back, and that she hadn't hurt him in the least.

**A/N** – I know it's another short chapter, but it's getting late, and I do need a little bit of sleep, tell me what you think, I tried to get InuYasha back into his normal character, dunno how well that went over, but I hope you all enjoyed the chater.


	7. Alazia

**A/N - **Hey guys, life sucks. My pin drive was stolen at school (after I posted chapter 6) so I might not get to post thisuntil after I get ungrounded (14th). Ok, so it has come to my attention that I have a horrible ability to not post very often. Sorry…but I will try to post more often, with longer chapters, because my chapters tend to be rather short… I'm going for 20 pages on this one, wish me luck…

**Disclaimer – **(Finds creative way to say that I do not own InuYasha)

**Chapter 7**

InuYasha sighed. He had an amazing ability with words, he could screw everything up without even trying, not one of his favorite abilities. The prince watched as Kagome stomped off, stopping not far away.

He tried to think of a way to rectify the problem at hand. He really didn't want to get on her bad side, girls are crazy, he knew that, and did not feel like having a psycho trying to kill him. She was probably plotting his death as he thought about a way to fix his problem. He needed to think fast.

InuYasha walked slowly over to Kagome, hoping that she wouldn't just turn her back to him when he sat beside her. She didn't, not that she looked at him either. Kagome refused to give in to whatever scheme he had to make her feel like the bad guy. Miroku had an amazing ability to do that, and she had the feeling that InuYasha had the same ability.

"I'm sorry, the words came out wrong; not that I should have said it anyway, it is none of my business what you do with my brother. Forgive me?" InuYasha hoped that just apologizing would work. His mother had told him that a sincere apology would work in most situations, not that he really believed her at the time.

Kagome looked up. Did he just apologize? She was never going to figure him out. He was nice, then he was a jerk, then he was nice again; maybe the jerk thing was recessive, or it could be stress.

"I know you didn't mean it quite the way you said it, and I can't think of better wording either, it's not your fault." She was looking at him, wondering if he would say that it was her fault. She really wanted him to find a way around that, see just how smart he really was.

"It's not your fault either, it was just a misunderstanding, I'm glad you understand that. Will you please explain it to me though?" The prince was a little confused, she made it sound like she didn't even really like Sesshomaru, yet she was sleeping with the guy. There were some things that InuYasha would never understand the logic behind, and he was starting to think that this would be one of those things.

Kagome blushed, "Just what do you want me to explain?" Jeeze, this guy sure wanted a lot of information about her, not even Sango knew yet, and she knew everything about Kagome. When Sango found out that InuYasha, a boy she had just met the day before found out something so important before she did, Kagome was dead. Until then, the boy might as well know; if she told him such personal things, maybe he would share things just as personal about him.

"Well…you don't have to tell me, but from the sounds of it, you are…sleeping with a man you barely know, though it may not be strange to sleep with one's fiancé, it is strange to sleep with a stranger, besides, in places with castles don't they usually make a big thing about the night of the marriage?" InuYasha hoped that by talking fast, and getting everything out with one breath she might not take it that offensively, and would answer him. Now that he thought about it, it would have probably been better to say it slowly; maybe he could have even found nicer sounding words. He doubted it, but it was a possibility.

Kagome looked at InuYasha, and decided that he meant it in the least offensive way it could possibly be taken, and so she answered him. "Well…he is very commanding, and as his fiancé, he thinks of me as his property, property he really doesn't care about, but that he can do whatever he pleases with. If he wanted me to be locked up in his room for the next month, I would do it. If I fought back, he would probably just hurt me, though in a private place, he wouldn't want to show any anger in public."

InuYasha fumed, and Kagome could almost see smoke coming out of his ears, almost. How dare some guy just take advantage of a woman like that! He made a mental note to kill this brother of his in that prophesized battle of theirs.

"So he forces you?" InuYasha was not doing so well containing his anger, his fists were balled at his sides, and his words came out as more of a growl than anything. Nobody deserves to be forced to have sex, especially someone as nice as Kagome. She hadn't even said anything mean about him being a hanyou.

"Well…not exactly, as I said before, I have to do whatever he says, and if he wants me to sleep with him, I do." Kagome had noticed how angry InuYasha was, and did not intend to make it any worse. If he got angry enough, he might transform again, and they could have a repeat of what happened in Kennewick; she didn't want that to happen.

"You know that wasn't the question, do you _want_ to sleep with the creep?" InuYasha hadn't even met the guy, and even knowing that they would have some huge battle hadn't made his half brother bad, but this made him disgusting, something not worth living.

"Well, not exactly, it's not that he's bad in bed, because he isn't," Kagome blushed, why the hell was she telling him these things? "I just…I don't know, I don't really feel very comfortable around him. He's too cold, emotionally he's a stone. Maybe a diamond, yeah, he's a diamond, and not in a good way."

InuYasha almost transformed, but held it in as best as he could. His eyes were blood red, but he refused to transform any further; the only thing around that he could kill was Kagome, and even if this wasn't real, killing her would definitely not be good in any way.

When Kagome saw what was happening to InuYasha, and how hard it was for him to fight his demon blood, she put a hand on one of his fists, smiled, and looked into his eyes, hoping that she would be able to calm him by showing that she was just fine. As she attempted to calm the prince, the clouds went from the darkness back to the pleasant pink they were upon their arrival.

It seemed to have worked, because the red faded from his eyes, bringing back the beautiful gold that Kagome was used to. He looked so sad and lost, like a puppy that wandered too far away from home, it made her sad. She had to get the whole empath thing fixed. Being an empath was hard on her, if she didn't have her guard up, she would adapt the strongest feeling near her. Her thoughts were interrupted as InuYasha spoke again.

"Hey Kagome, tell me about your family, and your friends too. What are they like?" He seemed to need another distraction, and not knowing somebody always seemed to be a good distraction. At least then he could ask them questions, and they could tell him the answers, getting him completely absorbed in their story.

Kagome looked over at InuYasha, and noticed how sad InuYasha looked, and sympathized for him. As she began to feel sad, the clouds turned a dark purple, resembling the emotions of the two sitting upon them. This time, the two took notice of the change in color.

"Kagome, think of something happy." InuYasha murmured as he thought of his mother. The clouds turned to a brilliant lime green.

Kagome laughed at the clouds. "Hey InuYasha, I think I know where we are." InuYasha gave Kagome a questioning look, and as he did so, the clouds went from just lime green to lime green with orange polka dots, making Kagome laugh even more. "I used to have dreams about this place when I was little. It seems that we were definitely moved to Alazia when we were unconscious, and have been conscious for quite some time. This is a room in the castle of the King, the door is…actually, I really never could tell which way the door was… but it turns out that my dreams were of a real place. It is kind of like an… infirmary. When we the people get better, not only do their bodies have to function properly to get out, but their minds too, or they will never find the doorway out. Sniff around, the door smells different than the rest of the room."

InuYasha had no clue what the insane girl beside him was talking about, but he decided to humor her. If he did so, and she wasn't as insane as she sounded, then he might just have a chance to explore the new place that he would be living in.

Kagome watched as InuYasha sniffed the air, slightly leaning to the left, away from her. She followed him as he got up, their curiosity making the clouds turn a beautiful shade of periwinkle. It seemed that InuYasha had an amazing sense of smell, because he quite easily found the door, saying something about how it smelt like his father and the other girl he met.

"You mean Sango, my cousin?" Kagome was amused that she seemed to be the only one whose name he remembered, though it didn't surprise her, they had just been stick in the cloud room for…a long time.

InuYasha nodded his head as he felt for the handle on the invisible door. When he opened it, Kagome slipped past him, signaling for him to be quiet and to follow her. They seemed to be in a dungeon like place. The walls were made of stone, and the hallway appeared to go on forever. Kagome opened a door about twenty yards away from the room that they came out of, when she disappeared behind it, InuYasha followed to find a spiraled staircase. It was still undecorated, confusing InuYasha. Kagome sensed his confusion, and stopped in front of him.

"It's a servant staircase, we wouldn't want to be seen, at least, you wouldn't, nobody knows you. And the way I'm dressed…" It was then that Kagome noticed that she was no longer in the uniform that she had been wearing in Seattle. InuYasha was wearing the same wine-red button up shirt with black slacks, but she was now in a dress, not the school uniform.

The dress that Kagome now had on had long draping sleeves, a full skirt, and a low, but modest, square neckline. It was royal blue, with white stripes adorning the skirt, and a white border for the neckline.

"What's wrong with the way you're dressed? You look just like the girls on the covers of my mom's old romance novels. Isn't that what you're supposed to wear? Or do people here actually wear those silly school uniforms?" InuYasha watched as Kagome started to get mad at him, wondering what it is he said to make her mad again.

"They are _not_ silly!"

* * *

"Hey Sango, do you think we should go check on them? Knowing Kagome, she'll forget where she is, they could die in there if we don't get them some water." Miroku looked over to see Sango sitting at her vanity, playing with a kitten in her lap.

"She knows perfectly well where she is, and she probably knows that InuYasha can sniff his way out, don't doubt her. Besides, even if we did go to get them, the door won't let us open it. I swear the thing is possessed…" Sango knew that her cousin would be just fine, unless InuYasha killed her for purifying him.

"It _is_ possessed Sango, it's supposed to be. If it weren't possessed, then it wouldn't work. Let's just hope that InuYasha has returned to his half-demon form, he won't be of any use to her in his human form, the place looks like it goes on forever. Izayoi really did a great job in creating it." The boy was contemplating telling Sango that he loved her, but decided that there was no way that she felt the same way about him, so why go and break his own heart? He then started to wonder how exactly he got to that train of thought from the infirmary. He really did think somewhat randomly…

It was while Miroku was staring at the ceiling of the parlor that was connected to his room that a servant, Rin, came in and whispered something into Sango's ear, receiving a nod as a response.

"Sesshomaru is back." Was what awoke Miroku from his thoughts. Sango sure had a way with words. She could be so blunt at times, yet she was one of the best people he knew at beating around the bush.

"Really now, why is it that you were told, and how did they know that you were here? InuTaisho is really quite good at keeping tabs on us…" Miroku thought it odd that InuTaisho would keep tabs on them; he never seemed to be able to find either of them.

"He doesn't keep tabs on us; Sesshomaru does, though I really haven't the slightest clue as to why. Wait a minute; does he know that InuYasha is here?" Sango really couldn't care less as to why Sesshomaru always knew where they were, it probably had to do with his need to know everything.

"No, and you only answered one of my questions, why were you told?" Miroku had the feeling that this was going to be one of those beat-around-the-bush moments, so he had better find a way to get her to spill.

"Probably because I'm Kagome's cousin, and well, I usually know where she is, so I can tell her that he's back, so really, it makes quite a lot of sense that he would tell me…" Sango was beginning to ramble on about how she was an excellent choice of a person to have been informed of the elder prince's arrival.

Miroku could think of only one way to get Sango to stop talking, it would probably also shock her into flat out telling him what he wanted to know. He walked over to her, amazed that she was still talking, put his hands on her shoulders, and kissed her. He was quite happy that she had been talking, because he got full access to her open mouth. Miroku slid his hands up from Sango's shoulders, over her neck, and into her hair. He was pleasantly surprised when Sango kissed him back. She put her arms around his shoulders while she massaged his tongue; she really had been waiting for Miroku to kiss her. Miroku was not in the most comfortable position leaning down so far to kiss the sitting girl, so he sat down too. Sango was sitting on a small couch, and was surprised when Miroku straddled her, not that she minded.

Miroku knew that if he kept the kiss going, he would probably take it too far with the beauty he was sitting on, and rather reluctantly pulled away, though he did stay on Sango's lap. "Sango, please tell me what Rin said, she was here too long to just tell you that Sesshomaru is back and to tell Kagome, you know that you can tell me anything, don't you?" Miroku looked down into the cloudy brown eyes of the woman he loved, wanting more than anything for her to know that she could tell him anything.

"I know Miroku, it's just that, it's rather private…I don't think that Kagome even knows that I know." Sango blushed a little at the close contact of the young man sitting on her lap in a rather suggestive way, and was glad that if anyone were to walk in on them, they would have to go through two doors to get to them.

"Please Sango, I'll take it to my grave if need be." Miroku looked down into the girl's eyes, mentally groveling at her feet. He would do anything if she would tell him everything, though he knew that that was something that would never happen.

"Kagome has been…sharing a bed with Sesshomaru since the day they became betrothed, and he wants her to be in his room tonight." Sango blurted out as fast as she could, hoping that saying it fast would dull the impact of her words.

Miroku was shocked to say the least. Innocent little Kagome, the youngest of the three, had been sleeping with the cold prince for over a month. Wow. If Miroku hadn't been straddling Sango, he would have fallen over. If only he could talk to her about it, well, nag her about not telling him, and apparently Sango.

"Why hasn't she told us, and how is it that you found out?" Miroku was so confused, he decided it better to sit next to Sango, rather than on her, otherwise, he would never be able to do it again.

"Well, Rin told me, she assumed that I already knew. I feel so sorry for her, having to be Sesshomaru's personal servant, it must be horrible. Especially for her, she is one of the nicest people I know." Sango decided to ignore the question of why Kagome hadn't told them, she was probably not so proud of it. Poor girl.

**A/N – **Yeah, so much for twenty pages, this is about 5 ½ pages. Oh well, I just want something to post tomorrow morning, tell me all what you think please. (Shorter update time at least…) and there should be fewer mistakes in this chapter…


	8. Rooms

**A/N – **Yes, Yes, I know, long update, sorry… I have had _no_ inspiration to write. I think that the nighttime agrees with me, because it is the night before the beginning of standardized testing, and I fully intend to stay up until I feel that this chapter has been well written. Hope that this chapter quenches your thirst for…whatever you like in my story that you have been missing

**Disclaimer – **Quite frankly, I am perfectly content not owning InuYasha.

**Chapter 8**

Kagome was fuming. She couldn't believe that InuYasha was such a jerk. The idiot probably didn't even know that he said something wrong. The more she thought about how stupid InuYasha was to make a negative comment on a girls clothes, the less she liked the outfit. Krys had told her that it was cute, and that boys would definitely like it, she didn't doubt that, though she never actually liked it.

InuYasha was following Kagome up the stairs, wondering where she would lead him, when it finally struck him as to what he had said wrong. _How can I rule a country if I can't even figure out what I said wrong to a girl? …how big is this country that I will be ruling?_

"Kagome, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking. But I do like your dress." The young prince did what any man would do, he gave her a compliment for brownie points.

Kagome sighed. What was she going to do with him? She couldn't keep fighting him, she was supposed to be around him most of the time until the day he joined the court of the king…which wouldn't be for a while at this rate. "InuYasha, I don't think that I ever liked that outfit. But you will need to be more guarded with your word if you are to become king. Tell me, do you have any experience with politics?" Kagome introduced a conversation to take up their time as they made the long trek back to the prince's room. It was then that Kagome remembered the state of his room. The memories from a month ago took over her mind as she automatically held up the conversation with InuYasha.

_Kagome followed InuTaisho into his study to find that Sesshomaru and a priest were already there. InuTaisho went behind the desk with the priest, while she took her spot next to Sesshomaru on the other side of the desk. The priest unrolled a long piece of parchment, and Sesshomaru and Kagome read over it._

_"Do you, Sesshomaru Takahashi take Kagome Higurashi to be your betrothed? And understand that unless circumstances change, you will be wed within two years?" The priest inquired once both had lifted their heads from reading the arrangement on the parchment._

_Sesshomaru looked over to the young girl next to him, amazed at their age difference, though he had heard of even greater differences, the half brother he had heard of was evidence of such relationships. The girl was beautiful, that he could not deny, but he also could not deny that he didn't know much more about her than the average person he passed by. He sighed in such an undertone that only his father could hear, and said, quite clearly, "I take this Kagome Higurashi to be my betrothed, and intend to marry her within the next two years."_

_The priest then looked to Kagome and asked her if she agreed to be Sesshomaru's betrothed. She hesitated, but only long enough to look up to InuTaisho who gave her a warm smile. She responded with a smile answering that she would._

_The newly betrothed then signed the bottom of the parchment, Sesshomaru first, then passing the feather to Kagome. Once the paper had been signed by the couple and the priest, InuTaisho melted a drop of red wax onto the paper and pressed the pendant of his necklace into it just as it solidified._

_The priest took the parchment and rolled it up, leaving to file it in the back room at the church. Sesshomaru moved to leave, but at the door he paused. "Kagome, come to my room in an hour." The prince left with a smirk on his face, almost unable to wait to see the look on her face when she found out exactly what would be happening._

"_Of course," Was all Kagome had to reply, she knew what was probably going to happen, and wasn't exactly looking forward to it, but wouldn't deny him what was now his right. InuTaisho cleared his throat, sat down, and motioned for Kagome to do the same. She sat, and wondered what could possibly make the regal king she knew, and thought of as a second father, look so forlorn._

"_What is wrong InuTaisho? You look like you misplaced some of you troops." Kagome joked, trying to make the man before her smile._

"_Child, you can call me dad now…if you are comfortable with it. I never noticed that you have no room, where should we put you?" The man seemed to be going over the blueprints of the humongous castle as he thought._

"_I think that dad will be a great name for you, Sesshomaru never seems to call you that, you may as well have _somebody_ call you it. Though soon, you will have someone calling you as dearly as I do. I doubt that my father would mind, he always knew that I thought of you as a second father. But what are you talking about? I have a room, and a very large one at that. I have no need to move…do I?"_

_InuTaisho let out a gentle laugh. "You have had a long time at home since your family's last visit to court, Kagome. The room you are in is for a guest. You are no longer a guest, you are practically a princess now, and your room should reflect that." The king seemed to make a hard decision before coming to a realization. "I will put you in InuYasha's room for now. He will not be arriving for about a month, and by then, I will have had one of the other grand rooms cleared for you. Yes, that will work."_

"_Dad, I really don't find it necessary to have such a big room as it is; a grand room would make me feel so small. Why would I need such a large room?" Kagome was bewildered. The room she had was for visiting royalty, almost as large as one of the grand rooms meant for royalty, what was the big deal?_

"_Well for one, InuYasha's room is right next to Sesshomaru's, and for another, your current room will soon be a nursery. It will take quite some time to have such a plain room turned into the grand nursery Izayoi wishes for the baby, especially if she changes her mind about something halfway through…" InuTaisho seemed to be talking to himself more than Kagome, but she forgave him, he was having a child soon, and had much to plan._

"_Will the prophecy allow for you to have another child?" Kagome decided that she may as well change to his subject or only have half of what he said directed to her._

"_Yes, it said nothing about a third child, just what would happen with the first two, it didn't say that I would have only two, so I think that the baby will be fine." InuTaisho seemed to go over the prophecy in his mind for a minute before answering her, just to make sure._

"_The prophecy said you would have two sons…" Kagome's eyes got wide and her mouth split into a lopsided smile "I'm going to have a baby sister!!"_

_InuTaisho smiled when the young girl before him figured out what he had known since before Izayoi even knew that she was pregnant. He could smell that she was pregnant long before she knew, and knew that it was a girl before even thinking about the prophecy. Being part dog demon really did ruin the surprise._

"_Yes Kagome, you will be having a baby sister, and Izayoi and I were wondering if you would be her godmother…" The man before Kagome let his question sink for a moment before she understood what he was asking._

"_Really?! You would let me? I mean, yes! Of course I would! I'd love to! Thank you both so very much!" Kagome rambled on with her thank-you's, until InuTaisho decided to tell her that she would be late to see Sesshomaru if she were not to leave soon, and that her things would be in the room to the left of his when exiting by the time she left._

_Kagome left for Sesshomaru's room. It was a bittersweet moment for her, she was happy to be a godmother, but sad that she was heading to Sesshomaru's bed._

"Uhm, Kagome? Are you okay? You look like you saw a ghost…did you?" InuYasha had been wondering why Kagome wasn't holding up much of a conversation. She had only explained what he had already guessed, the King has ultimate power. Though she did tell him that there wasn't a place in the world that the King didn't rule, which InuYasha was unaware of. At first he thought that she meant that his father had influence all over the world, not that he had reign over the entire planet. No wonder the man looked so formidable. She then went on to explain that there were three regions of the world, ruled by men that were kings in their own right, but not as high in rank as his father. She had explained that he was the High King, and that when the other kings came to court, he was to be called as such.

For the most part, InuYasha understood. At one point there was a war, and the former kings were disheartened at no longer being kings, so InuTaisho let them continue their lives as they had; only reporting to him every now and then. Once a year the whole of the world's royalty came to the castle, and brought some of their court. From what InuYasha understood, the world's geography was much different from what he was used to. Kagome told him that she would show him a map once they got to his room.

Kagome had been talking about Sesshomaru literally ruling half of the world, and showing him the map in his room, but she just stopped. Talking, moving, breathing, she wasn't doing anything. "Kagome…? I think you might want to breathe now…" InuYasha gently shook Kagome's shoulders, grabbing her attention.

"Hmm? Oh, sorry InuYasha, I was just thinking about something. This next passage will get us to the hall in front of your room, and mine too." Kagome decided not to tell the hanyou that it was the same room, though she did have a plan to fix that, she had noticed an unused door in the room, and intended to figure out where it lead.

They reached the passage Kagome had talked about, and there was a door that Kagome stopped at. The girl was about to open the door when she gave InuYasha an inquiring look, "InuYasha, is there anybody in the hallway on the other side of this door?" She knew that the boy could tell her, and she was hoping that there wasn't, for all the castle knew, he didn't exist really. They heard rumors about him being born around the time he turned three, and had heard rumors of him coming to court ever since. There were many rumors of his whereabouts, though since very few knew that the other plains existed, no guesses were even close.

"Nope, and nobody is coming either. Is my father's room in this hall?" InuYasha had smelt a rather recent trace of a scent somewhat like his father's, but it was different somehow.

"No, but your brother's is, and your sis…never mind." Kagome smiled innocently up at the boy who looked a little bit confused. "Well, come on, follow me, I'll show you to your room." Kagome opened the door and led InuYasha out to the hall, and to past the room belonging to Sesshomaru, as they passed it, InuYasha was filled with rage realizing that the prince was in his room.

"Kagome, I thought Sesshomaru was in New York, or somewhere on the other plain, why is he in his room?" Kagome would have turned to stone had she not known that Sesshomaru could probably hear them, and would summon her if she did not hurry to the confines of her room.

"I suppose he has returned." Was all Kagome said as she opened the room she had been occupying as of late. Once a confused InuYasha had entered the room, Kagome quickly shut the door.

"It's because I have been living in here since the engagement." It took InuYasha a moment to realize that he had not asked the question that the girl beside him had answered.

"Oh. Then…where is your new room?" InuYasha seemed a bit confused at this, he didn't want to put the girl out of a nice room, even if he was a prince, he wouldn't mind sleeping on the floor, or outside in a tree.

"Well…about that, I think you might be getting a new room…" Kagome pointed to a door next to her vanity, "I think that that leads to another room, last time I opened it, I saw stairs, but had no lantern to see by. Want to see what's up there? We could flip a coin for the room…" InuYasha noticed that Kagome seemed to like the room that she was in, and could see why, it was massive, and well decorated, all in a royal blue and sea green.

"How about I take the upstairs room, I wouldn't want you to have to go up and down those all the time, you might trip." InuYasha had seen the girl trip multiple times on their way to the room, and was amused by the slight blush brought to her cheeks.

"It's not my fault I trip a lot!…well…maybe it is, but I can fix it…I think." Kagome looked at her feet, contemplating trying to better her balance.

"Well, it's not something you will be able to fix in the next five minutes, so I will take the room at the top of the stairs…if there is a room." InuYasha was already heading to the door, expecting Kagome to follow.

**A/N – **I'm sorry this took forever, I've had serious projects in school, one right after the other, and now that I've finished this chapter, I think I'll go annotate my book now.

**Credit – **I personally did not come up with the idea of one High King, and a few kings below him, I give that credit to the author of The King's Mistress by dolphingirl0113. it is an amazing story, so if any of you want something good to read while I write this, it is completed, and exceptionally well done, very few mistakes, oh, and it is on fanfiction.


	9. True Feelings

**A/N – **Enjoy chapter nine for me? is secretly hoping that none of my few readers are plotting to kill me for being stupid and taking the wrong pin drive to Germany

**Disclaimer – **Erm…well…InuYasha and friends…not mine….sorry if you actually thought he was…(hopefully none of you are that dumb considering this is a site for _fan_fiction…)

Chapter 9

Kagome grabbed a lantern and followed InuYasha up the stairs. She was amazed at his ability to see in the dark, for he was long past her, and she could not see him, meaning that he had found his way fine on his own.

The staircase was long, and of the spiraling variety, with unlit torches hanging from the wall on the outside of the circle the stairs were making. Just when Kagome thought that the trek would never end, and that she would never catch up to InuYasha, she found an open door shedding some light on to a small landing.

"Well, sure took you long enough, there were only five hundred and four stairs." InuYasha was wearing a roughish smile, knowing that even if she had run, he would have still stayed out of her sight. He really loved exploring, and having the chance to explore a place a world away from his norm was something he couldn't have waited for. He had used all of his demonic speed to get him up the stairs as fast as he could, though he counted them for Kagome, just in case she was wondering.

Kagome could tell that InuYasha was joking, and never wanted him to lose the smile he was wearing, it showed just how handsome he could be, just as a prince should be. She decided to lose the thought of turning him into the perfect prince, at least for the rest of the day. Kagome would let him be, and see how bad his personality really was.

"If I were a demon…I would have beaten you." Kagome said defiantly, deciding to play with him.

"Oh? Well, I am glad that you are not the demon, or you might have gotten this room, it is quite nice, better even than yours." It was then that Kagome noticed that she hadn't even seen past the door, having been stopped by InuYasha. She shoved him to the side, sticking her tongue out at him as she passed by.

Kagome gasped. She could see the walls and the furniture, but they were almost transparent. She could see outside as if though she were standing on top of the castle, and off to one side, she could see the roof of the castle. The room was huge, and as InuYasha walked in, he flipped a switch by the door, and everything returned to its previous state of visibility; the walls showing that they were stone, like the rest of the castle. The room had a red and gold theme, with redwood floors, and red furniture.

"Amazing, isn't it? I went to turn on the lights, and everything turned transparent. I forgot that there is no electricity here…" InuYasha seemed more bewildered than Kagome was.

"I didn't know that this room even existed…it must be the West Tower, I've heard rumors about it being like this, but nobody has ever found a way to get in here…from the outside, no windows or balconies can be seen, but I can quite clearly see a few windows and a set of doors leading out to a balcony. There must be a very powerful spell on this room. I think I will call InuTaisho to have a look at it at once." Kagome seemed determined to go get the king, because she turned away from the magical room and the prince to go back down the long set of stars.

"Hey! Wait for me! You can't just leave me…" InuYasha wisely decided not to test the girl who made amazing time down the stretching set of stairs, and followed her instead, grumbling the whole way about mean deserting girls.

InuTaisho was sitting in his office contemplating what to do if the youths in the infirmary were not well soon. They would have to have a person feed and bathe them, which would make problems for him; nobody could know about InuYasha's presence at the court until the time was right, which he hoped would be soon, he was running out of time. As he contemplated making Rin do the job because she was his most trusted servant, he smelt both of the youth in question coming down the hallway towards his study.

When Kagome and InuYasha entered InuTaisho's study, the demon was already looking at them. Neither of the teens seemed to notice the look of relief he had on his face when they entered the room, and instead, Kagome began talking almost before she even opened the door.

"Dad! Dad! Guess what!?" The girl seemed so excited, yet the boy be hind her was just glaring at the back of her head.

"What is it Kagome?" InuTaisho decided to ignore the look that InuYasha was giving Kagome, it would probably be brought up at one point or another.

"I found the West tower!" She seemed so proud of herself in that moment that InuTaisho laughed.

"Sure took you long enough, there were many reasons I gave you that room, and that tower was one of them." The King continued to laugh at Kagome as she gave him a bewildered look. "Didn't I tell you that that was once my room? I had stayed in the tower whenever I didn't want anyone to find me. Before you moved in, I had the concealing spell removed from the door so that you would find it. How did it take until now for you to find it?"

"I..erm…I wasn't here! I had the room for a week before I left for Seattle, and you expected me to find it? I had much better things to do than find some silly, well, amazing room." She exclaimed "Besides I wasn't really in there very often."

InuTaisho was about to inquire as to where she was instead, when Sesshoumaru walked in, answering his question.

"Kagome, will you come with me please? I'm sure InuYasha and InuTaisho have much catching up to do." Sesshoumaru motioned to the door, seeming very nonchalant.

InuYasha shot Kagome a look. It quite clearly portrayed that he knew exactly what was going to happen and that Kagome was not exactly jumping for joy about it. He had already said more than his two cents about the subject, but he could really do with a talk with her right now. Her going off and sleeping with Sesshoumaru was something that they would most definitely have a talk about later. InuYasha knew that she wouldn't want to talk about it, and he probably wouldn't either, but they would. It was one of the random instincts he had, he knew that they would have a rather long, deep conversation about her relationship with Sesshoumaru.

Kagome ignored the look that she knew she was getting from InuYasha, if she looked at him, all her ability to go along with Sesshoumaru would disappear. He had those eyes. Those eyes could make her do anything. It didn't matter whose eyes they were, Sesshoumaru's, InuYasha's, even InuTaisho's, all of them had the ability to practically control her.

Slowly, so as not to trip in the presence of so much royalty, Kagome rose and followed Sesshoumaru out the door. Where she proceeded to trip over nothing. Sesshoumaru smiled. Not a big grin, or even anything that would be noticed, just a slight upturning of his lips. It disappeared as soon as it came, and he looked as callous as ever, but his eyes were laughing. Kagome caught herself, but still blushed at her clumsiness. She was now determined to kill every ounce of clumsiness in her.

They soon found themselves in front of Sesshoumaru's door. Sesshoumaru looked at Kagome, and could feel the nervousness radiating off of the girl. He vaguely wondered what she was nervous about. They had been together many times, and she had only been nervous the first few times, by now, she should be at least comfortable with him.

Just seconds after the door was opened, Kagome was sitting on Sesshoumaru's bed, looking at her swinging feet. This was unusual. She usually followed him, and waited until he gave her at least some direction to do something.

"Sesshoumaru…" Kagome started, but could not seem to force herself continue. She had made eye contact with InuYasha as she had exited the room, and had read the look in his eyes.

Sesshoumaru watched as Kagome swung her feet back and forth, knowing what she was trying to say. It may be hard for her to say it, but she had to, he wanted her to. She _would_ learn to stand up for herself, even if it took Sesshoumaru years, he would make sure she learned to at some point. In this case, his brother made things easier. Sesshoumaru knew InuYasha's birthday, he knew that he was the one for Kagome, he knew that he would not be marrying Kagome in December, and he had known it for years.

"Tell me. Whatever you are trying to say, just say it. Nothing you could ever say would upset me." He was now standing about a foot in front of Kagome, also watching her feet, for the first time noticing that she was wearing heels that looked to be made out of purple glass.

"I…" Kagome looked up to see Sesshoumaru apparently concentrating on her shoes, and was somehow given the strength to finish, "I don't love you Sesshoumaru, I never have, I don't think that I ever will. I've tried, and found that I love you in completely the wrong way. I see you as a close friend, or even another brother. What I mean to say is that as soon as we both find someone else…we should break the engagement. You don't love me, and I see no reason for us to keep up this relationship. Now I think that I will go back to my room…"

Kagome stood, only to be pulled into Sesshoumaru's arms.

**A/N - **It just came to my attention that only 1.6 percent of the people who have read this, have reviewed. If you take into consideration that half of those were from the same person, (who I am delighted to have reading my story) about .8 percent of my readers review. This makes me a sad little bird.


	10. Of Proposals and Such

**Disclaimer – **Sesshoumaru would probably kill me if I were to say that I owned InuYasha…so I won't.

**A/n – **I know it's been forever. For those of you still reading this, thank you. I've been amazingly busy between moving and starting a new school.  
Also, this may become R**ated M** at some point, I can keep the adult stuff out, but it takes away from the story, so trell me what you think please.

Chapter 10

He held her tight, wishing that she had voiced her feelings much, much earlier. Tears started to flow from the slight girl's eyes, soaking Sesshoumaru's shirt. When Kagome started sobbing, Sesshoumaru stiffened, turning to granite. It took him a moment to realize what to do. He had seen InuYasha's mother comfort him a time or two in front of their house. As Sesshoumaru began to rub her back, and kiss her on the head periodically, every 34 seconds, Kagome began to calm down.

"I'm sorry, I seem to cause you so much trouble….Sesshoumaru, why did you agree to marry me?" Her teary eyes looked up into his surprised ones, hoping that she would receive an honest answer.

"I…am not sure. You needed to stay here in the castle, and for that you needed a reason. Being my betrothed seemed like a fine reason, and father thought that I was your prophesized future. I was willing to go along with it. I…knew all along that InuYasha is your true future, and I knew that you would never love me, or me you, but you needed to be here to meet him. Forgive me?" Kagome was more surprised that he seemed to pause a couple of times than she was by his words.

"How could I not forgive you?" Kagome smiled through her tears before noticing something the prince had said. "Wait…InuYasha? Why him?"

"He was born at the same moment as you were, I have the hospital records if you would like to see them." Sesshoumaru looked surprised that the girl had no knowledge of his brother's birthday.

"I…I have to go back now, to my room, it's getting late, thank you Sesshoumaru, for listening to me.

As Kagome headed towards the door, Sesshoumaru called out to her. "I'll have dinner sent to your room, we seem to have missed it, I think it was about an hour ago."

"Send two, InuYasha will be needing one also. No, he's not staying in my room…his room is above mine, he has the West Tower, we found it. Thank you my prince."

Sesshoumaru knew from the formality that she would speak no more, so he simply called Rin from the parlor of his chambers to his bedroom, and requested the two meals to be delivered to Kagome's chambers. He caught her wrist as she turned to leave, and spun her to his chest, planting a kiss on her forehead. The girl blushed before scurrying off to the kitchen, muttering about the food getting cold, leaving a smiling demon behind her.

"So…do you know what day it is?" InuTaisho seemed distracted by his inkwell, picking it up and inspecting the bottom as he questioned his son who had plopped down on the opposite side of the desk.

"Eh…no? I was in the cloudy room…that place is odd. Who made it like that? Why? How would a human get out on their own? Kagome made me find the door. Did you know that we have the same birthday? Exactly? Why is she with Sesshoumaru? I don't like him, when is this battle I'm supposed to have with him? Can't I just kill him now? Who is Kagome? She seems powerful, she's an empath, and has the power to purify me completely for a while. How long were we in there? How did we get here? When's the baby due?" The last question slipped out when InuYasha smelt a pregnant woman's scent on his father. The whole time InuYasha was talking, InuTaisho had a shocked expression on his face.

"I…didn't know that you were so talkative…I also was unaware of your birthday. It's tomorrow by the way…two sons with one birthday…and Kagome's too…what an eventful day tomorrow will be…" As InuTaisho thought about the adventure of tomorrow, InuYasha remembered the importance of his sixteenth birthday.

"It's been that long? Oh… When will I have a little sister? Who's the mother? How is that room like that…why haven't you been answering my questions?" InuYasha gave a confused look that made his father laugh.

"You ask too many at one time for me to answer… Yes, it has been that long. You should have a sister in about…two months…I think. Sesshoumaru's mother, Izayoi, she's the one who made the room that way…it's a spell of some sort, quite frankly, I haven't a clue as to how it works. It heals people, and as you probably noticed is as empathic as Kagome is. Oh! You asked about her too, right? She is the daughter of a very powerful man, and an even more powerful woman. Don't ask her about her father, he died, and that is the reason she is here. It was a temporary arrangement, I would take care of her here while her brother supported her mother at their house. You will probably be going there soon. I think you will leave tomorrow. So you can meet your brother and new…step……Izayoi, in the morning before you leave. Miroku and Sango will be accompanying you, along with Kagome, she misses her family. You can learn what you need to there, and when you are ready to appear before the court, you can return here to have a ball." At the look that InuYasha was giving InuTaisho, the latter decided to elaborate, "Not a bunch of fun…a dance." At the look he was now receiving, an onlooker would have thought that InuTaisho was proposing that InuYasha be castrated.

"You want me to _dance_?"

"Of course, and you have to be graceful too, I'll have Kagome teach you."

"I already know how, I can waltz, salsa, tango, and just about anything else you want me to do, but I won't do it. The only reason I learned is because mom wouldn't take me to New York with her if I didn't learn." InuTaisho was shocked.

"You will dance. And you will do so well. Practice with Kagome and Sango while you are gone, I expect you to be on par with Sesshoumaru when you return. Kagome will make sure of it. It's getting late, you should return to your room now; can you find your way?"

"Of course I can, good night, see you in the morning…I don't have any clothes… what should I do about that?" InuYasha knew better than to argue with his father. As much as he didn't want to agree, his mother had told him to behave, so he would.

"Oh. There should be a bunch of clothes that should fit you in the closet in the tower. You look enough like me that they will look good on you. Good night."

As InuYasha found his way back up the stairs and to the left, he found scents that bothered him. His brother's scent was practically surrounding Kagome's sweet scent, ruining it completely. From the point the smell hit his nose until he reached Kagome's door, InuYasha stopped breathing. It was a horrible smell. Upon closing the door and taking a deep breath, the smell assaulted him again. Had they gotten bored with Sesshoumaru's bed? Instead of listening to see if Sesshoumaru was around, InuYasha simply edged along the wall to the door leading to the tower. As he was about to grab the handle, the door opened of its own accord, the scent once again attacking his poor nose.

"Gha!" Kagome startled at the strange exclamation let out from the hanyou at her side.

"What?! All I did was put your dinner in your room. Quite a nice thing if you think about all those stairs." Kagome looked over to see that the prince was no longer at her side, but cowering in a corner covering his nose with his hands, and glaring at the girl.

"Where is he?! I'm going to kill him, and then make you bathe! Actually, you go bathe, and I'll kill him while you do that!" The scent really wasn't bad, it almost smelly like him mixed with Kagome, it was just what it insinuated that bothered him. The smell just made him think of it.

"Where's who? Oh…Sesshoumaru's not here…does he really smell that bad to you?" Kagome was amazed at the look on InuYasha's face when she mentioned his brother's name. Upon hearing that his brother was not near, InuYasha straightened and sniffed the air to make sure that Kagome was telling the truth. From the smell of things, the elder prince had never even set foot in the room. Making his way back to Kagome, InuYasha kept sniffing the air, he kept his eyes closed, and his nose ended up on Kagome's left cheek. The girl blushed when he came close to her, but didn't move, and when he started to sniff her cheek, she was resembling the upholstery in the West Tower.

"Why have you been crying?" InuYasha questioned as he opened his eyes, his forehead now resting on Kagome's.

"I…I told him that I couldn't be with him anymore…he wasn't mean, he didn't even object. He said that I belong with you, and that he knew that…I still don't understand him." Kagome closed her eyes, trying to memorize the scent of InuYasha, he smelly like her cedar chest, but spicy, with a hint of peppermint.

Sango slipped into Miroku's chambers, amazed at how beautiful the lavender parlor looked by the light of the fireplace. She reached the double doors to his bedchamber, and gently knocked on one. She heard a muttered reply, and slipped in, gently closing the door.

"You really could be a spy, you know that, right?" Miroku was sitting at the foot of his bed cross legged, watching the stars through his glass balcony doors. His whole room was decorated in a range of lavender, from the lightest shades, to some that appeared to be black; somehow, the room did not appear at all girly, it looked rather masculine.

"I_ am_ a spy you moron. Why do you think I'm so close to InuTaisho? He needs me to keep an eye on his children, and make sure no wars are going to break out between the mini-kings." Sango looked serious as she said this, causing Miroku to break out in a fit of laughter.

"We both know that's a lie. The world is at peace, and will be for a very long time. Forever even if things go well. If you want to be a spy, I have a job for you though, come here." Miroku had an evil glint in his eyes as he beckoned for Sango to sit next to him. Somehow, the girl completely missed it. Miroku leaned over to whisper in her ear as she sat next to him.

"Stay still for a moment." He whispered, so quiet that Sango barely heard him. He slipped off the bed to kneel in font of the beauty on his bed, and slipped something out of his pocket. Sango's eyes grew, and she would have fled had Miroku not taken her hand.

"Sango…I love you. I want to be with you forever, even when the world is at peace, I cannot be so without you by my side. Marry me?" His eyes were pleading, uncertain what answer he would receive. Sango slid off the bed, landing gracefully in front of the uncertain Miroku. She took his face in her hands, looking into his eyes, and kissed him, not saying a word. Miroku wasn't sure what to do, so he went along until he felt tears on his cheeks. He wasn't the one crying.

"What's wrong? You don't have to answer me, you can just slap me and leave, or kill me, I know you can. You can call me all the horrible names that have ever gone through your head at the sight of me. You could go marry someone else; that would hurt the most." Miroku looked at his lap as he said these words, not seeing the smile accompanying the tears.

"Aren't you going to give me my ring? I'm not going to agree if I don't get a ring." Miroku looked up, his eyes about to pop out of his head. He nodded and grabbed her hand, thinking for a moment to remember which finger to put it on, then sliding on a ring that looked familiar to Sango.

"Where have I seen this ring before? I know I've seen it…" Sango pondered this for a moment, then looked up to Miroku's open collar. She couldn't see the chain that normally adorned his neck, but that was not unusual, the chain was long, she usually only saw it when it managed to find a way out of the man's shirt. Surprising Miroku, she reached up to unbutton his shirt, and found that the chain was not there any more. Miroku knew what was going through her head, but pretended that he did not.

"Whoa! Slow down, we can take out clothes off later, don't you want to tell InuTaisho and Kagome before you strip me?" He laughed for a moment before getting a glare from his fiancée.

"Is this your mother's ring? I can't take it Miroku; it's all you have left of her! You can give me one made from grass, anything, just not this, its too important to you!" Sango went to take the ring from her finger, only to be stopped by Miroku.

"The two most important things in my life ought to be together. That ring is more special than you could ever imagine." Miroku pulled a necklace with a single diamond pendant from his pocket and put it on. The diamond shone for a second without any light hitting it, and the large diamond on Sango's finger did the same. "Whenever you need me, just think about me being beside you, and I will be there. I can do the same with you too. You can even talk to me through it, and no one but me will hear it. Quite a spell they have….Want to go tell Kagome now?"

"No…I want to finish what you think I started." Sango pushed Miroku to the floor, and lied on top of him. For a moment, all she did was lie on top of him, but soon Miroku found that his neck was receiving kisses from an angel.

**A/N – **Hiya! …He wasn't supposed to propose…not yet anyway. Don't worry, they will have their trials. And for those of you saying 'but it's too soon! They barely know each other!' just remember that we meet then now, they've known each other for a very long time. We will see more into their pasts next time, and have a nice conversation with Kagome and InuYasha. See you soon!


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